Not all Oscar winners get statues

WE WON'T know which Oscar-winning movies will see a bump at the box office until this weekend, but the telecast has already resulted in a number of winners who didn't leave with little gold men:

* ABC, Ellen DeGeneres and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a good night, as ratings for the telecast in the nation's 56 largest TV markets were up 7 percent over last year.

Nielsen said yesterday that New York, Kansas City, Mo., and Chicago were the strongest markets for Sunday's telecast, in which "12 Years a Slave" won the Academy Award for best picture.

The Oscars are frequently the second-most-watched television program of the year, after the Super Bowl, with viewership topping 40 million people last year.

Overnight ratings in the 56 largest markets are only a partial picture, however, and sometimes not reflective of the country as a whole.

The nation's 56 largest markets certainly don't reflect the nation as a whole? Thank goodness.

* The book 12 Years a Slave, the 19th-century memoir by ex-slave Solomon Northup, jumped from No. 326 on Amazon.com before Sunday night's Academy Awards to No. 19 yesterday afternoon.

Thanks to the movie's success, interest in the book has been revived and public high schools are starting to add it to course lists.

* Pharrell Williams' charity, From One Hand to AnOTHER, is $44,000 richer after Pharrell auctioned off his Dudley Do-Right hat on eBay.

TheWrap.com says that Arby's, which has a logo featuring a similar hat, was the high bidder at $44,100.

"Arby's is still determining exactly where the hat will go next, but we're very happy to have it back," a spokesman said. "We are looking forward to future opportunities to work with Pharrell and his foundation to raise the visibility for our shared cause of improving the lives of youth."

* The Elton John AIDS Foundation, meanwhile, is $5.1 million richer following its 22nd annual Oscars bash. As usual, the stars came out in force and opened their bulging wallets for the cause.

Ed Sheeran performed and Gordon Ramsay made the hors d'oeuvres dinner.

* And Oscars delivery guy Edgar Martirosyan from Big Mama's and Papa's Pizza is $1,000 richer after Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres had him on her show yesterday and gave him his tip.

* Chelsea Handler drew accusations of racism after she was invited to take over the Huffington Post's Twitter account during Sunday night's Oscars and repeatedly touted her upcoming book, Uganda Be Kidding Me, whenever "12 Years a Slave" received an award.

People responded via Twitter with words like "disgraceful," "offensive" and "racist."

Huffington Post senior executive director Perri Dorset said the site was up front about the Twitter feed takeover and has invited celebrities to do so in the past, adding that "the views are theirs not ours."

The Associated Press reported that Handler also took a swipe at Kenyan supporting-actress winner Lupita Nyong'o, tweeting, "#AngelinaJolie just filed adoption papers #lupitanyongo #Oscars - @chelseahandler."

Is that a swipe at Lupita? Seems more like a joke at the expense of Angelina.

As for the "Uganda" "joke," that is the unfortunate name of Handler's next book. It's more shameless self-promotion than joke, however. "12 Years" all takes place in America - Solomon Northrup's father was born in Rhode Island - and has nothing to do with Uganda. In fact, during the time of "12 Years a Slave," Uganda wasn't even Uganda.

The Roots announced their seventh annual Roots Picnic yesterday for Saturday, May 31, at the Festival Pier at Penn's Landing.

This year's eclectic lineup includes Janelle Monae, Action Bronson, araabMUZIK, the War On Drugs and a set with Snoop Dogg backed by the Roots.

Tickets go on sale Friday at noon at Ticketmaster.com, the Live Nation Box Office (111 Presidential Blvd., Bala Cynwyd), TLA (334 South St./service-charge-free) or 800-745-3000.

* Jay Z's Roc Nation will now manage Kanye West.

The management company and West's label announced yesterday that Roc Nation will work alongside West's production house, DONDA, on managing the controversial and self-proclaimed musical genius. Izvor Zivkovic will continue to manage West as well.

Roc Nation already manages Rihanna, Shakira, Timbaland and other acts.

* Although "A Madea Christmas" "lost" to the M. Night Shyamalan/Will Smith collaboration "After Earth" for the Razzies' worst picture of the year, if action pioneer/blaxploitation film icon Fred "The Hammer" Williamson had his way, Tyler Perry's latest would have swept the awards for film futility.

"We're starting to go back to the era now, where all black people in film are funny," Williamson told Tattle comics/sci-fi/martial-arts correspondent Jerome Maida. "It seems the only black movies that make money are with black comics. It seems like we're slipping back and losing ground. What the blaxploitation era did was give us heroes and we've lost that and we're slipping back into the comedy stuff.

"I mean, 'Madea' - I'm tired of seeing that kind of stuff, man," he continued. "I mean, that has to be the worst picture of the year, Madea at Christmas . . . anything's better than that, man!"

Williamson says those who compare the Madea movies to minstrel shows of the past are wrong.

"It's even worse than that!" he said.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

On Twitter: @DNTattle