BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — If it truly is a pleasure just to be nominated for an Oscar, Alan Menken must be Hollywood's happiest man.
The co-composer of songs from Walt Disney's musical hit "Enchanted" has three of the five nominations in the original-song category going into Sunday's Academy Awards.
While that's not a record — three of Henry Krieger's songs from "Dreamgirls" were nominated just last year — news of the triple play still took Menken by surprise.
"My publicist, Ray Costa, called me and said, 'Alan, you're nominated for "Happy Working Song" ... and "So Close" ... and "That's How You Know," Menken recalled for AP Television at the Oscar nominees luncheon in early February. "I was really blind-sided, completely blind-sided. Three nominations. I said, 'Now we're gonna lose."
Menken, 58, said he expects that the three "Enchanted" entries, co-written with Stephen Schwartz, may split the vote, improving odds for the other song contenders at the ceremony: "Falling Slowly" from "Once" and "Raise It Up" from "August Rush."
Last year, the three "Dreamgirls" songs lost out to Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth."
Then again, Menken and his late co-writer Howard Ashman got three 1991 nods for "Beauty and the Beast" and won for the title tune.
Other Oscars Menken has won include those for co-writing "Under the Sea" from "The Little Mermaid," "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin" and "Colors of the Wind" from "Pocahontas."
Those Oscars "live in my studio, and they're all in a cabinet," Menken said. "And I occasionally let them out and let people hold them."
Menken said he points out the statues when he has a studio disagreement with a collaborator.
"I say, 'Turn around and look over there," he noted with a laugh. "It's obnoxious, but sometimes effective."
Police: Houston Found Dead in Her Hotel Room
Paul Suffers Narrow Loss to Romney in Maine
Recording Superstar Whitney Houston Dead at 48
Maine GOP Chairman Says Romney Wins Caucuses
Palin Brings Anti-Washington Message to CPAC
Obama Scraps Birth Control Mandate
US Airmen's Killer Sentenced to Life in Germany
Navy Names Ship for Gabrielle Giffords
Raw Video: Deadly Blasts in Syria
Romney Slams President Obama at CPAC
Gingrich: Pres. Obama 'waging War on Religion'
5 Killed in Wrong-way Crash on I-10 in La.
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
