Oscar Greats

Emma keeps her Oscars®...in her guest bathroom! In the privacy of the "loo," guests can pick up her Oscars without having to ask permission, she says. Plus, the brass bath fixtures and golden statuettes are a perfect match!

Emma believes these awards changed her life and career. Growing up in England, Emma says she never realized how important the Academy Awards were because they weren't broadcast in Britain. In 1992, when she arrived in Los Angeles as a first-time nominee, the significance began to sink in. During the awards, Emma's own mother said she didn't have a "snowball's chance in hell" of winning...but she did! "I was totally shocked," Emma tells Oprah.

After the awards show, Emma says she wrapped her Oscar in a pair of socks and put it in her purse for the flight home. The gold-plated statue set off airport security alarms, and the screeners asked to unwrap the mysterious cargo from its sock casing. "It was as though they had unveiled the Ark of the Covenant," Emma remembers. "They all passed it around saying, 'Oh, look! Can we hold it?' ... It was very, very moving to me."

Across the pond, Emma says she was removed from the Hollywood hoopla, and her first Oscar win didn't seem to change her life much. It wasn't until her second win for Best Screenplay that the offers started pouring in. "Everyone asked me to write every single script," she says. "They want screenwriters who have a profile. ... But, of course, I'm the sort of writer that can only write when I really, really feel passionate."