SAY `FAREWELL' TO OLD TELECAST RECORD.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Staff Writer

In the end, the Force wasn't on Oscar's side.

It was sometime during the sound effects editing presentation that we began noticing the time. Not a good sign when you've only just passed the first quarter of a record-breakingly l-o-n-g show that lasted four hours and two minutes.

The 71st annual Hollywood love-fest, the last Academy Awards of the century, suffered from uneven comedy material, tepid dance and tribute segments, and the overall feeling of air slowly leaking from an overfilled balloon.

The much-anticipated reaction among the audience at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was decidedly mixed as name-dropping director Elia Kazan received a lifetime achievement award Sunday.

TV cameras, true to the producer's promise, panned parts of the crowd when Kazan, 89 and in poor health, stepped on stage to thank presenters Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.

Actors Nick Nolte and Ed Harris sat silently and best director winner Steven Spielberg's reaction was subdued, while others stood and applauded in response to the debate over Kazan's decision some 50 years ago to name names during the McCarthy investigation of communist influence on Hollywood.

``I think I can just slip away,'' Kazan said to his wife before stepping away from the microphone.

It was over almost as soon as it began.

Earlier, show host Whoopi Goldberg had joked, ``I thought the blacklist was me and Hattie McDaniel.''

By the time the Kazan segment was over, there were still six awards to go and the show had already gone almost 30 minutes overtime. It had taken 20 minutes to get to the first award of the evening.

The show went 17 minutes longer than last year's three-hour, 45-minute program.

Elements that, in small doses, would ordinarily be welcome grew tiresome in repetition.

Italian actor Roberto Benigni's overly ebullient shtick became exhausting as he clambered over seats to get to the stage, where he clung to best foreign film presenter Sophia Loren like she was a life preserver. A short time later, he leapt to the stage again to accept the best actor award.

Goldberg, opening the show as Queen Elizabeth - ``I am the African Queen'' - had waited all of three minutes before going for laughs with a coarse joke about ``the imperial wee wee.''

Although she changed gowns six times during the telecast, the humor was pretty much cut from the same fabric.

Veteran Oscar watchers look forward to the glitches, missed cues, bad choices and crying jags that can transform the awards show into farce.

Anne Heche experienced the first technical problems of the night as she was introducing the winner for technical achievement. When her clip-on microphone suddenly went on the fritz, she was forced to hike to a stand-up microphone and restart her speech.

Another memorable low came during choreographer Debbie Allen's interpretive dance segment in which her troupe emoted to the nominated film scores.

By the time the dancers got to the invasion of Normandy from ``Saving Private Ryan,'' we started hoping someone would invade the stage and make it stop.

When it came to waterworks, best actress winner Gwyneth Paltrow won the golden tissue. She spent her entire acceptance speech crying her eyes out while thanking everyone from the ``Shakespeare in Love'' crew to her grandfather.

You knew the 26-year-old starlet was in trouble when none other than Jack Nicholson, who presented the award, was the one offering consolation and a steady arm.

Of course, Paltrow was probably crying from pure giddiness. It's expected her fee could soar to $10 million, up from the $2 million she got for ``Shakespeare in Love.''

Oscar's comedy highlight also involved tears - the crocodile tears of Jim Carrey pretending to be broken up over not getting even a nomination for ``The Truman Show.''

An earlier musical moment had Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston in a duet of ``When You Believe,'' the best original song winner from ``Prince of Egypt.''

ABC's Oscar preshow, however, suffered from missed opportunities. Instead of sticking to arrivals, the network's dull half-hour preview consisted of vintage newsreel footage of Oscars past, pretaped interviews and short features hosted by Geena Davis.

It sorely lacked the energy of E! Entertainment Television's annual red carpet horror show.

By the time it was all over for another year, we spied a certain little golden man sneaking a peek at his watch.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Oscar host Whoopi Goldberg entered the stage in full Judi Dench-as-Queen Elizabeth regalia.

(2--Color) Mariah Carey, left, and Whitney Houston sing ``When You Believe,'' nominated for best original song, from ``Prince of Egypt.''

David R. Crane/Daily News