'Slumdog Millionaire' wins Oscars' triple crown

It stands to reason that, if Oscar voters believe a film is the best of the year, they think it's the best directed and written too. So we should not be surprised that "Slumdog Millionaire" won all three of those races at the Oscars. After all, "No Country for Old Men" did just that at last year's Oscars as did "The Departed" the year before. However, only half of the last 20 best picture Oscar winners have pulled off the same feat. Besides those two most recent champs, they were:

While the best pic prize has historically lined up with best director, five of the last 20 winners were not helmed by the best in the business according to Oscar.

"Crash" (2005): Paul Haggis may have won an Oscar for his script but DGA champ Ang Lee took the best director award for "Brokeback Mountain."

"Chicago" (2002): DGA winner Rob Marshall lost to Roman Polanski ("The Pianist").

"Gladiator" (2000): Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") watched double nominee Steven Soderbergh win for helming "Traffic."

"Shakespeare in Love" (1998): John Madden lost to DGA winner Steven Spielberg ("Saving Private Ryan").

"Driving Miss Daisy" (1989): Bruce Beresford wasn't even nominated and DGA champ Oliver Stone won for helming "Born on the Fourth of July."

Only 13 of the last 20 best pictures won Oscars for their screenplays, though four of the seven that lost their script race did manage to win best director:

"Million Dollar Baby" (2004) lost adapted screenplay to "Sideways."

"The English Patient" (1996) lost adapted screenplay to "Sling Blade"

"Braveheart" (1995) lost original screenplay to "The Usual Suspects"

"Unforgiven" (1992) lost original screenplay to "The Crying Game"

Even though "Titanic" swept the Oscars in 1997, James Cameron did not even rate a nod for his original screenplay with the Oscar going to "Good Will Hunting."

And in a special class of dubious distinction are two best pictures that lost both directing and screenplay races:

"Chicago" (2002) lost adapted screenplay to "The Pianist"

"Gladiator" (2000) lost original screenplay to "Almost Famous"