A Beauty For Annette Bening

Annette Bening has been happily married for eight years to Warren Beatty, and she is expecting their fourth child right around Oscar night.

Ironically, Bening's Oscar-nominated role is that of a dissatisfied wife in American Beauty, in which her cheating days come to an abrupt halt after an unexpected encounter with her husband, played by Kevin Spacey.

Last October, she told Early Show National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman that she is very pleased with the movie. "I was just so happy when I saw it," she said. "I did it because I loved it, and I really believed in the script, and everybody did."

"I mean, so many times, I've worked and wanted something to just come together beautifully. And often, they just don't for any number of reasons. But this time, it did, and I was just so excited."

One scene from American Beauty around the dinner table shows how members of the family are not connecting to one another.

"There's something classic in American families about the dinner table and what happens at the dinner table, and I think the writingtouches on that quintessential sort of experience," Bening explained.

"I know in my house, lots of things happened at the dinner table - the fights. I can remember specific episodes in my own life as a kid," Bening added.

She said she thinks that American Beauty is a success because of how it touches the audience.

"The movie takes each person and turns them. And you say, 'Oh, wait a minute. That's who that is. That's what I didn't see.' And, somehow, that point of view, that exposure about each character, is what is so satisfying, because I think we all feel that about ourselves, too," said the 41-year-old actress.

"We want to be seen for who we really are, and each person has his own complex story and reasons for doing what they do," she added.