At the 74th Academy Awards, held to honor the films of 2001, Peter Jackson's fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was nominated for a whopping 13 awards, including Best Picture. It ultimately won four Oscars, signaling that fantasy films were now considered major prestige fare; traditionally, the Oscars have been drawn to biographies, histories, and dramas of a personal nature. For the purposes of this article, I will remind readers that "Fellowship" lost its award for Best Original Song to "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc." The "Fellowship" song was a wispy, dream folk-like lullaby called "May It Be," written by Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan, and noted dream-rock chanteuse Enya.
The televised Oscar ceremony that year was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, and she brought the right balance of reverence and irreverence to the evening. The show was directed by Louis J. Horovitz and sported 18 credited writers, all of them with impressive pedigrees. The head writer was Bruce Vilanch, who has written many, many Oscar-casts, TV specials, comedy sketches, and Lord knows what else. Also on the writing roster were Wanda Sykes, Rita Rudner, James Cameron, Cameron Crowe, Buck Henry, David Mamet, and others.
For those unfamiliar with her award show career, Carrie Fisher also contributed to the Oscars a few times, notably for the 69th, 74th, and 79th telecasts. For the 69th show, she even appeared on stage to be admonished by her own mother, Debbie Reynolds, for writing "drivel" for the show.
Fisher, always a sardonic soul, knew that Enya had been nominated for an Oscar that year, and decided to write a joke at the songwriter's expense. Bruce Vilanch talked about Fisher's Enya gag in a 2017 interview with People Magazine. It seems the gag went over well with everyone ... almost.