Anthony Breznican has a great piece up at USA Today with 14-time Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates recounting behind-the-scenes moments that left him speechless.

There's Michael Moore's musical send-off after a solid 60 seconds of anti-war ranting in 2003, Anna Paquin's hyperventilating Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech in 1995 and Madonna's hissy-fit over a microphone mishap in 1991.  But I loved this little anecdote regarding Argentinian thugs nearly nixing a satellite feed in 1990:

Driving Miss Daisy was destined for the best-picture prize, and with the Berlin Wall crumbling and the Cold War ending, Cates says he tried to tap the growing sense of international cheer by staging satellite presentations of awards from around the globe.

"That show was very festive and made festive by the fact that the world seemed it would be at peace again," Cates says.

Jack Lemmon was in Moscow, Mel Gibson was in London, and Charlton Heston was lined up to present a prize from Argentina.

One problem: "In Argentina, about two hours before the show was going to air, I got a call from the producer down there, Al Schwartz, saying that a bunch of thugs had gotten hold of him and told him that if we didn't pay them $10,000, they were going to cut the line from the (satellite) truck right before the show was to go on.

"At that time, the president of Argentina was (Carlos) Menem — and he was going to be there with his wife. We were doing it in the opera house of Buenos Aires. I said to the producer, 'Do you know these guys, you got a picture of them or something? A name?' He said, 'Oh, yeah. They were very polite.'

"I said, 'OK, well, if you have the guts to do this, go back and tell them it's absolutely fine to cut it. But just be aware of the fact that the president is there' — and the president was a real strongman — 'and the president's deal in letting us do the show was we had to promise he would be on camera for at least five seconds.' That's true. And I said to tell these guys that if the president is not on for five seconds, we know who prevented him from being on.

"I didn't know what the result was going to be, but what can you do? The truth of the matter is, at the end of the day, I would have paid them the $10,000. But how the hell do you get $10,000 two hours before the show in Argentina?

"By God, Al Schwartz went down and told these thugs that and the show went off, no problem."