Discuss Bonestructure's answer to: I have a niece who is making it big in the opera ...

There's no truth to it. The origins of the statuette's nickname, Oscar, have been traced to three sources. Actress Bette Davis claimed that the name derived from her observation that the backside of the statuette looked like that of her husband Harmon Oscar Nelson. Columnist Sidney Skolsky maintained that he gave the award its nickname to negate pretension. The name has also been attributed to academy librarian Margaret Herrick, who declared that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. The true origin of the nickname has never been determined.

I know nothing about opera so I can't really comment on the rest of it.