Mary Pickford

Known as Hollywood's White House, Pickfair was the home of the movie colony's first lady, 1920s silent-screen star Mary Pickford, and her swashbuckling husband, actor Douglas Fairbanks. Royals and rascals, artists and athletes made the Wallace Neff-designed residence (believed to be the first in L.A. with a built-in swimming pool) the social center of the city.

And the Oscar for best Hollywood courtroom drama goes to . . . the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The golden statuette was awarded Monday by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury, which ruled that if Mary Pickford's heirs want to sell it, they have to offer it to academy officials for $10 instead of auctioning it off for as much as $800,000.

More arts and entertainment coverage on the Web. It's like putting Julia Roberts' Oscar on the auction block! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will bar the sale of two Oscars awarded to Hollywood legend Mary Pickford. "America's first sweetheart" reigned supreme during the early years of moviemaking with a clean-cut demeanor. COURT FILES There's something about Mary AND… Model. Singer. Action heroine. Milla Jovovich has a new item on the r?sum?: a clothing line for Target.

On Oscar night in 1929, movie legend Mary Pickford -- with her bob hairdo and strapless beaded evening gown -- posed for photos after accepting the Academy Awards' first best actress award for a talking movie. It was a big night for Pickford, who had become "America's sweetheart" as a silent film star and with the melodrama "Coquette" was making the leap into talkies. Almost 80 years later, Pickford's prized statuette is now at the center of another kind of drama.

Mary Pickford was cinema's first female superstar. The diminutive Canadian-born actress, nicknamed "America's Sweetheart," made more than 250 films during her career and elevated silent-film acting to mature, realistic heights. She also was a producer who ran her own studio, she co-founded United Artists, and she was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Blame it on Mary Pickford. If not for the silent screen star's insistence on bringing fellow actors to an event in her honor, most Hollywood types might still be banned from A-list soirees. "You are all suffering from something she started -- having to buy a lot of tickets to events that recognize all kinds of people in the industry," honorary Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant told guests at the Women of Distinction Awards.