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Monday, March 22, 1999 5:13:23 PM EST

• Lewinsky hits magazine's Oscar party
• Miramax scores with 'Shakespeare,' 'Life'
• Carrey mocks his non-nomination
• Dion's backward suit catches eyes

Lewinsky

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Monica Lewinsky hit the Oscar parties Sunday evening even as her affair with President Bill Clinton was the butt of jokes inside the hall.

Lewinsky, along with Kirk Douglas, Anthony Hopkins and former Clinton staffer Dee Dee Myers, attended a party thrown by Vanity Fair magazine. She did not attend the Oscar ceremony, where early in the program, host Whoopi Goldberg delivered a racy monologue on the scandal that swirled around the former White House intern and led to the first presidential impeachment in more than a century.

"Subpoenas, cigars, black berets, DNA. Interns, rug burns, Henry Hyde, gratified, prime-time confession ... Mr. Trent Lott, out out damned spot. Acquired immunity which is a deficient syndrome. Talking points, approval ratings, phone sex, dating," Goldberg told a laughing and amazed celebrity audience.

"Shakespeare in Love"

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Miramax brought home 10 Oscars for corporate parent Walt Disney Co. at Sunday's Academy Awards as its releases "Shakespeare in Love" and "Life is Beautiful" scored big.

"Shakespeare in Love" won seven Oscars, including best picture; best actress for Gwyneth Paltrow; best supporting actress, Dame Judi Dench; and best screenplay for Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman. Miramax distributed the Elizabethan-era comedy with the Universal Pictures unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.

And Italy's Roberto Benigni took the best actor category for Miramax's "Life is Beautiful," the Italian tragicomedy about Holocaust. The film also won for best foreign film and best dramatic score.

"Shakespeare"'s nearest rival, "Saving Private Ryan," claimed one major award for DreamWorks SKG: Steven Spielberg, co-founder of Hollywood's newest studio, won the best director prize. The movie also won in the cinematography, film editing, sound and sound effects editing categories.

Carrey

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Actor Jim Carrey, whose Academy-ignored performance in "The Truman Show" led many to consider him snubbed, got to make fun of his plight at Sunday night's Oscar show.

Carrey, a presenter for the 71st Academy Awards, mocked the tone of many post-show speeches on stage at the ceremony.

"Winning the Oscar is not the most important thing in the world," he said. "It's an honor just to be nom ... Oh, God," he said, feigning sobs. Laughs and a few soft boos from the audience greeted Carrey's reference to his lack of a nomination.

"Who cares?" he added. "I have been beaten by Roberto Benigni. He has jumped into my ocean." Benigni's performance in "Life is Beautiful" earned the Italian comedian the best actor prize Sunday night.

Dion

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The unofficial prize for most daring outfit at Sunday's Academy Awards went to Canadian singer Celine Dion, according to many observers.

The songstress wore what appeared from the front to be a slinky, Galliano pantsuit. But the back was designed to look like a man's suit -- down to the lace scarf protruding from one pocket.

The "Titanic" singer topped it off with an oversized white fedora and $25,000 diamond-studded, Ray-Ban sunglasses. The sunglasses were to be auctioned off for charity.

Reuters contributed to this report.