OSCAR CHAT 'N' CHEW: ON THE OUTSIDE HUMILITY ON MENU AT ACADEMY'S LUNCH.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

All together everybody, and say it with feeling: ``This is not a competition!''

If it was uttered once, it was uttered 50 times by Oscar nominees attending the Academy Award nominees' luncheon Monday at the Beverly Hilton. Practically every question with the word ``competition'' elicited the same reply with varying degrees of testiness: ``I don't look at this as a competition.''

So said ``The Insider'' director Michael Mann and ``The Sixth Sense's'' 11-year-old best supporting actor nominee Haley Joel Osment (who, one reporter noted, must be ``11 years old going on 50.'')

It was actor Kevin Spacey who deflected the awards hype with the most eloquence.

``Those of us who have been doing this long enough know to focus on the process and on the work,'' said Spacey, a past Oscar winner and a nominee for ``American Beauty. ``Then the movie opens, and it gets to this point and there's this unnatural pitting of us against each other. We don't feel that. I don't feel that at all.''

The only predictions were by nominees who expected to lose. Best actress nominee Julianne Moore said she had ``no expectation of winning'' the Oscar. ``It will be Hilary (Swank) or Annette (Bening), don't you think?'' she said.

And best-song nominees Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman don't expect their racey tune, ``Blame Canada,'' from ``South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut'' to win. But whatever else happens on March 26, Parker is hoping he won't lose to singer Phil Collins, a best-song nominee for ``You'll Be in My Heart'' from ``Tarzan.''

When it was suggested that Collins might actually be inside at the luncheon Parker was attending, Parker replied, ``So what. He can only weigh about a buck fifty.''

Nominees said such Oscar-related festivities were opportunities to get together with fellow performers. After following best-actor nominee Russell Crowe to the podium, fellow Aussie Toni Collette was asked about Crowe, with whom she worked in the 1992 film ``The Efficiency Expert.''

``I remember getting drunk with him and him having to clean up my vomit,'' Colette said with a big laugh.

In a year with so many nominated films being inspired by actual events, Swank (of ``Boys Don't Cry'') and ``The Insider's'' Mann both discussed the themes of their nominated films and the real-life characters who served as the films' inspirations: Brandon Teena and Jeffrey Wigand. But when the discussion turned to concerns over historical accuracy, Denzel Washington - who played Rubin ``Hurricane'' Carter in ``The Hurricane'' - parried the question.

``I'm up for best performance by an actor,'' said Washington. ``Rubin was 5-foot-8, 160 pounds; I'm 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, so I guess I shouldn't play the part because I'm not the accurate actor.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1) An Oscar statue towers over young Haley Joel Osment at Monday's Oscar luncheon for nominees in Beverly Hills.

Photos by David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(2) Supporting actor Tom Cruise smiles before the lunch begins.

(3) Kevin Spacey says he doesn't feel any sense of competition for awards.

(4) Denzel Washington shares a laugh with the press at the Beverly Hilton.

(5) Julianne Moore doesn't think she'll win in the best-actress category this year.