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An Oscar Mystery Solved

It's Oscar night...the perfect time to remember Annette's appearance at the 33rd Academy Awards, where she accepted a Juvenile Oscar on behalf of fellow Disney star, Hayley Mills for her role in "Pollyanna".

Many have wondered over the years why it was that Mills herself was not in attendance at the ceremony that night and what ever became of the roughly seven-inch-tall trophy - the last of twelve ever awarded in the Academy's history.

Mills recently put these questions to rest in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.  "I was actually at boarding school in England" the actress reveals on why she didn't attend the show.  "I didn't know anything about it (the award) until it turned up."

When asked if winning an Oscar affected the way she viewed her career at the time, Mills responded: "It didn't change the way I viewed my career, and maybe that was one of the reasons why my parents decided A, not to tell me about it, and B, therefore, not to send me or let me go to the ceremony, because I was very young...It's part of their attitude towards me when I was a child, [that] I should be kept as unaffected by the world that I was now moving in as possible.  So, I went off to my boarding school, and when I came back from making a movie in Hollywood, I went back to boarding school."

As to the Oscars whereabouts, the actress has no idea.  "I'm terribly embarrassed to say this, because it looks so careless, but it has disappeared.  In the late '80's, I came to California to do a television series ["Good Morning, Miss Bliss", later retitled "Saved by the Bell"].  When I came back from that first year, my little statuette had disappeared, and I never found it.  And you know, it's something you can't replace.  They've broken the mold. ...But I'd say for 25 years it was on the mantelpiece in my drawing room, and I was always very proud of it." 

You can read Hayley Mills' full interview and watch an accompanying video interview HERE.



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