SHOUTING, “Come and get me boys!” as she descended to the Oscars stage on a trapeze in top hat and feathers, actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg returned in zany style on Sunday to the awards show she last hosted three years ago.

Although her introduction was a takeoff on best picture candidate “Moulin Rouge” and Nicole Kidman, Goldberg quickly turned her humor to the nasty whispering campaign recently waged against another nominee for best film, “A Beautiful Mind.”

“Can you believe this campaign? So much mud has been thrown this year, all the nominees look black,” Goldberg joked, mixing references to the “Beautiful Mind” controversy and to the attention generated by the nomination of three African American stars for top acting awards.

In the weeks leading up to the 74th annual Academy Awards, the makers of “A Beautiful Mind” found themselves on the defensive against allegations that the schizophrenic mathematician portrayed in the film, John Nash, was an anti-Semite. The allegations, which were denied by Nash himself, were widely seen as having been spread by people in Hollywood associated with rival films.

“I tell you, this negative campaigning has got to stop. I got an e-mail today that said Frodo Baggins was an anti-Semite,” she said, referring to a hobbit character in the epic fantasy “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”—Reuters