Breakthrough Awards show is a nearly surreal disaster

Despite an abysmal sound system and a gratingly bad (and endlessly repeated) theme song, the Movieline Hollywood Life third annual Breakthrough Awards managed to bring out the best of old and new in Tinseltown.

The really surreal part of the evening started when the awards began, as Robert Downey Jr. presented the first award to his "Gothika" director, Mathieu Kassovitz. His presentation went off without a hitch, but director Robert Benton didn't fare so well. He took a header on the way to the podium, actually rolling across the floor and into the backstage curtains. Dusted off, Benton presented the Breakthrough Award to Aussie ingenue Jacinda Barrett, who co- stars in his film "The Human Stain." She proceeded to drop -- and chip off a chunk of -- her award.

The next few awards were presented and received smoothly. Then the program order shifted; when Tom Cruise arrives and is ready to go, he goes. Offering up the award to his "Last Samurai" co-star Ken Watanabe after exchanging several bear hugs, Cruise gushed, "It is not often that you get a chance to share the screen with an artist from an entirely different culture and in the process I was able to make a very good friend."

Nick Nolte set off widespread tittering. His introduction of award winner Peter Sarsgaard was almost incoherent. Other Breakthrough awardees included Shia LaBeouf, Mischa Barton, Diego Luna and "Nip/ Tuck" hottie Julian McMahon.

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