`Rain Man' Nabs Eight Oscar Nominations

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--Rain Man, a road movie featuring a scheming car salesperson learning to love his autistic brother, topped nominations for the 61st Academy Awards yesterday with eight nods, including one for best picture.

The movie also received nominations for Dustin Hoffman as best actor and best director for Barry Levinson.

Earning seven nominations each were Dangerous Liaisons, a drama hinging on the bed-hopping seductions of the wealthy in prerevolutionary France, and Mississippi Burning, the controversial depiction of the FBI's investigation of the slaying of three civil rights workers in 1964.

Both were nominated for best picture, as were The Accidental Tourist, an adaptation of Anne Tyler's acclaimed novel tracing the emotional journeys of a travel writer, and Working Girl, a Cinderella tale of a secretary who battles her way up the corporate ladder.

Actress Sigourney Weaver claimed a rare Oscar double nomination for best actress for Gorillas in the Mist: The Adventure of Dian Fossey and best supporting actress for Working Girl.

Joining Weaver in the best actress competition were Glenn Close for Dangerous Liaisons, Jodie Foster for The Accused, Meryl Streep for A Cry in the Dark and, in her first Oscar nomination, Melanie Griffith for Working Girl.

Their male counterparts, joining Rain Man's Hoffman, included Gene Hackman for Mississippi Burning. He was joined by Oscar-nominee newcomers Tom Hanks for Big, Edward James Olmos for Stand and Deliver and veteran actor Max Von Sydow for Denmark's Pelle the Conqueror.

In addition to Levinson's nomination for Rain Man, best director nominees included Charles Crichton for A Fish Called Wanda, Martin Scorsese for the controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, Alan Parker for Mississippi Burning and Mike Nichols for Working Girl.

Also nominated for best supporting actress were Joan Cusack from Working Girl, Geena Davis for The Accidental Tourist, Frances McDormand for Mississippi Burning and Michelle Pfeiffer for Dangerous Liaisons.

Veteran actor Alec Guinness, co-star of Little Dorrit, received a nomination for best supporting actor, as did Kevin Kline for A Fish Called Wanda, Martin Landau for Tucker. The Man and His Dream, River Phoenix for Running On Empty and Dean Stockwell for Married to the Mob.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the inventive comic blend of animation and live action, drew six nominations, but all of them for technical achievements. Working Girl also collected six nods, including best original song for Carly Simon's Let the River Run.

Other multiple nominees included Gorillas in the Mist, with five and The Accidental Tourist and Die Hard with four nominations each.

The nominations were announced in a predawn news conference at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Oscar trophies will be presented March 29 beginning at 6 p.m. PST in a ceremony broadcast nationally by ABC-TV.