Director Robert Altman was given an honorary Oscar at this year's ceremony, but the presentation was Inexplicably omitted from the edited highlights package sold around the world and shown on RTÉ last Monday night. Altman, who is 81, said at the end of his dignified acceptance speech: "I'm here, I think, under false pretences. I think I have to become straight with you. Eleven years ago I had a heart transplant, a total heart transplant. I got the heart of, I think, a young woman who was in about her late 30s. By that kind of calculation you may be giving this award too early because I think I've got about 40 years left."