Friends, family and show business colleagues gathered to remember late Oscar-winning director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack at a private memorial service, according to a person with knowledge of the service.

The person insisted on anonymity because the family wanted details of the service on Saturday to be kept private and the person was not authorized to release any information.

The 73-year-old director, producer and actor died of cancer on May 26 while surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, according to his publicist, Leslee Dart. Pollack had been diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago.

Pollack won Academy Awards for best picture and best director for the 1985 epic “Out of Africa.” In a career spanning nearly five decades, he directed over 20 films, including “The Firm,” “Havana” and “Absence of Malice.” The last film he directed was the 2006 documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry.”

Pollack had worked with seemingly every A-list star in the business: Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman, Barbra Streisand and George Clooney. He collaborated with Robert Redford on seven films, including “Out of Africa,” 1973’s “The Way We Were,” 1975’s “Three Days of the Condor” and 1979’s “The Electric Horseman.”

While best known as a director, Pollack frequently stepped in front of the camera. He played the agent of Dustin Hoffman’s cross-dressing soap star in 1982’s “Tootsie,” which he also directed, and the old-school law firm boss in 2007’s “Michael Clayton,” which he also co-produced. He also appeared on “Will & Grace,” “Entourage” and “The Sopranos.”

Pollack is survived by his wife, Claire; two daughters, a brother and six grandchildren. Pollack’s son, Steven, died in a plane crash in 1993.

Hal Holbroom, nearly 83, and Saoirse Ronan, 13, vie for Academy Awards

Hal Holbrook will turn 83 in two weeks. He is the oldest actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award, passing Ralph Richardson, who was also 82 when nominated for supporting actor for “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” in 1984. (Years reflect the date of the film’s release.)

George Burns is the only other octogenarian man to be recognized. He was nominated and won supporting actor honors for “The Sunshine Boys” in 1975. He was 80 years and 69 days.

As for the ladies, Jessica Tandy was also 80 when she won best actress for “Driving Miss Daisy,” released in 1989. “Titanic’s” Gloria Stuart was 87 when nominated for supporting actress in 1997.

Ruby Dee, nominated in the supporting category this year for “American Gangster,” is 83, about four months older than Holbrook.

Saoirse Ronan, meanwhile, is all of 13, making her the seventh-youngest woman to be nominated for supporting actress.

The youngest to win? Tatum O’Neal was 10 when she won for “Paper Moon” in 1973. Anna Paquin (”The Piano”) was 11 when she won in 1993. Patty Duke was 16 when she won supporting honors for “The Miracle Worker” in 1962.

No male under the age of 20 has won an acting Oscar. Timothy Hutton is the youngest winner, being 20 when he won supporting actor for “Ordinary People” in 1980.

Adrien Brody, then 29, became the youngest man to take home the best actor Oscar when he won five years ago for “The Pianist.”

Marlee Matlin is the youngest best actress winner. She was 21 when she won for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1986.

Mark Burnett has some advice for how to fix the Academy Awards:

“The Oscars, I think, could certainly be shorter.  The show seems very long,” notes the ultra-successful and influential producer.  “I think it would be really appropriate to include some of these big comedies and action blockbusters in the running,” he adds.  The Oscars “air on the broadcast networks – the key word is broadcast.  You know, as much as I enjoyed ‘La Vie en Rose,’ I don’t know that a big portion of the audience saw that movie to say whether or not it deserved to be honored.”

Burnett is producing this Sunday’s (6/1) 2008 MTV Movie Awards — the second time he’s taken on producing the show.  This year’s edition has Mike Myers hosting, Coldplay and the Pussycat Dolls among the performers, and a new Best Summer Movie So Far category being voted on ‘til the last minute.  It promises to be a blockbuster event.

Last year’s MTV Movie Awards saw a ratings increase of 9 per cent over 2006. On the other hand, the many times larger Oscar show saw its worst ratings decline yet this past February — 14 per cent lower than the previously least-watched Oscars.

“From a relevance point of view, the MTV Movie Awards are a perfect way to do an awards show that celebrates movies,” says Burnett. “They’re a lot of fun and very, very relevant.”

Burnett, a.k.a. the reality TV king whose shows range from “Survivor” to “The Apprentice” to “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader,” points out that transforming the MTV Movie Awards into a live show last year “has given it a whole new sense of energy.  There’s a reason to tune in and see it live.”

WOMAN ON THE MOVE: “It’s a big summer for me, but I just got my first house so I need a big summer,” says Haylie Duff, who’s working hard for those house payments.  ”I’m doing a movie in Vancouver called ‘Deep Cove’ that I get to film on big boats and in the woods.  Then I’m doing a movie called ‘Slightly Single in L.A.’ It’s kind of a funny twist on women in their twenties who are dating in Los Angeles,” she tells us.  ”I think guys get a bad rap for being able to walk away from relationships and we don’t always get to see that women are the same way.”

In the meantime, Duff is anticipating the June 2 premiere of “Legally Blonde: The Search for the New Elle Woods.”  ”I look at those girls as my peers.  I’m constantly auditioning for things so I felt like an equal to them more than I did somebody that was going to be judging them or eliminating them,” says Duff of hosting the new MTV reality series.  ”I got to be there when they were upset and tell them I’ve been through all the same things they are feeling and it does get better, and there’s a huge payoff at the end.”

Duff can then be seen June 8 in the Spike TV movie, “Backwoods,” about a group of colleagues, who set out for a company retreat in the woods, only to find themselves being hunted.  ”It was a great experience for me because I got to play a girl that went from being quite vulnerable in her life, to being really strong and empowered.”

WEDDING TRIBUTE: Emmy Award winning (“Win Ben Stein’s Money”) TV personality Teresa Strasser’s  Vegas wedding at the Venetian next month (Iune) to Daniel Wachinski promises to be a time of rejoicing - and healing. The former host of TLC’s “While You Were Out” and current sidekick on The Adam Carolla radio show is wearing the gown of her fiance’s deceased sister. The sister, Lynn, and her new husband were killed in a car accident 10 year ago, leaving a devastated family. Knowing how much her future husband idolized his big sister, Strasser committed to wearing the wedding gown sight unseen. It turned out to be Kismet. The current co-host of the TV Guide Network’s weekly pop-culture roundup, “TV Watercooler” discovered the dress to be a beautiful, classic Vera Wang gown — that fits perfectly.

PLANET PLEASING: Rob Morrow and Fisher Stevens are collaborating on a pilot presentation for NBC called “Green Team” – about a self-made billionaire who decides to turn his life around after a terrible health scare, and goes from being a big-time ecological offender to going Green. Stylistically, they’re tying for a not-so –scripted approach ala “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Stevens and Morrow are exec producing and Morrow directing the presentation.