The Associated Press

The winner at the Academy Awards and at the post-telecast Board of Governors Ball: Charlize Theron.

The South African actress, with her charming accent and fresh blonde beauty, was a hit with the ball guests and especially the press photographers.

"It's a great story: the ugly duckling becomes the belle of the ball," proclaimed noted Hollywood columnist Army Archerd, who interviewed arrivals for the 36th year. In her Oscar win for Monster, Theron played a plain-faced murderer.

Sixteen hundred guests poured into the ballroom a few floors above the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, site of the awards. Tickets cost $750 a pop, no great sacrifice for most attendees, who could put it on their expense accounts.

The price afforded them a Wolfgang Puck supper in lavish surroundings, including seven choices of antipasto, a mini-potato topped with creme fraiche and caviar, an entree of filet mignon and Maine lobster, and a dessert of chocolate tort and espresso ice cream.

At the ball, a 25-piece orchestra, played mostly vintage tunes like "Cheek to Cheek" and "And All the Things You Are," which seemed to fit the predominantly older crowd.

By 11 p.m. the ballroom was about half-empty, many departing for private parties, others facing an early call heading for home.

The night didn't end quite as early for Mystic River best actor winner Sean Penn, who didn't shy away from attending the Academy Awards this time, despite skipping the event for his three previous nominations: 1995's Dead Man Walking, 1999's Sweet and Lowdown and 2001's I Am Sam.

"It came down to a bit of social discomfort," he said backstage, crunching ice from a drink he carried. "Too many people you know a little bit in one room. That's what this is."

Penn, who has been dismissive of awards contests, seemed taken aback by the standing ovation he received when his name was called.

"I did arguably feel I was there to debunk the notion that it was a popularity contest, but they took that joke away from me," he said.

Sofia Coppola's Oscar for best original screenplay for Lost in Translation puts her in some rarified company: one of only two third-generation family members to win an Academy Award.

The other was Angelica Huston, who captured the best supporting actress Oscar for Prizzi's Honor in 1985. Her grandfather Walter Huston won supporting-actor honors in 1948 for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and her father, John Huston, won directing and writing awards for that film.

Coppola's father, Francis Ford Coppola, has won five Oscars, including three in 1974 for The Godfather II, when Sofia was a toddler. The Godfather II also won her grandfather, Carmine Coppola, the 1974 Oscar for best original score.

Coppola's cousin, Nicolas Cage, also won a best-actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995.

"I was so happy to look over and see my parents and my cousin Nicolas and my brother Roman," she said backstage. "I never thought my dad would be watching me get one. It was just a thrill."