Actress Minnie Driver credits a wardrobe malfunction with inspiring her famous red carpet snap at her first Academy Awards in 1998 after her dress "fell off" right in front of the cameras.

The Brit was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Good Will Hunting and headed to the prestigious Hollywood prizegiving in a floor-length ruby Halston gown with a plunging neckline, with a faux fur stole to complete to her glamorous look.

However, Driver admits she was very nearly caught half-naked after the seams of one of her sleeves came undone.

She recalls, "When you walked in, there were banks of photographers, but there was only one place that you stood for them to have a look at your dress.

"I got up there and I put my hand on my hip and my dress fell off and I... had this fake fur stole around my shoulders and I pulled it around and the picture that they took of me smiling, and with this stole around my shoulders, became quite a famous picture, and nobody knows that it was just my dress had fallen off, and probably if they had got (sic) a few frames before, you totally would have seen my boobs."

Driver isn't the only star to suffer a near-disaster on their first Oscars red carpet - Glenn Close briefly flashed her bra during her debut appearance at Hollywood's big night years ago.

She remembers, "I was in a beautiful Geoffrey Beene dress. It was strapless, with a gorgeous bolero. Somebody stepped on the train and the whole top flipped down, and so for a split second, the entire audience saw my exposed breasts."