Leona
by Leona

So the dust has settled on the 94th Academy Awards, with Coda taking top honours in the Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor categories.

Everyone cheered when the awards show reunited the cast from iconic movies such as The Godfather and Pulp Fiction. And everyone gave a standing ovation when Liza Minnelli came on. But the most significant moment of the night was not the legends that appeared or the award winners that broke new ground.

The most jaw-dropping moment belonged to an altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, in an unscripted bit where Rock made a jibe at Smith's wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith appearing in G.I. Jane 2 due to her shaved head. Moments later, Smith bounced up the stage and gave what seemed to be a slap across Rock's face. At this point, most of the audience still thought it was a skit.

However, Rock appeared shaken after the altercation. And Smith didn't stop there; he yelled from his seat, "Keep my wife's name out of your f****** mouth." He dropped the F-bomb twice, and if you are watching the show live, you would have heard the whole uncensored affair. A still shaken Rock diffused the situation with "That's the greatest night in the history of television." While we don't know if it's the greatest, it's undoubtedly the most memorable moment of the night. And it made us think, what other crazy moments were there in Oscar history? Plenty, it seems. Here's a look.

 

Wrong Movie Announced for Best Picture

This may be still fresh in our minds. At the 2017 Oscars, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway erroneously announced La La Land as the Best Picture, only to find out midway through the acceptance speech that they had broadcasted the wrong movie. Someone had placed the wrong envelope in their hands. Moonlight was revealed as the rightful winner. What a night!

 

That Kiss!

When Adrien Brody won the Best Actor award for his role in The Pianist in 2013, he was so delighted that he passionately kissed presenter Halle Berry on the lips. The unsuspecting Berry was a great sport about it.

 

Jennifer Lawrence Takes a Spill

Jennifer Lawrence was won the Best Actress Award in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook, and the then first-time nominee and self-professed klutz was so stunned that she fell on the steps up the stage. But she was unfazed by the whole affair. She opened her acceptance speech with, “You guys are just standing up ’cause you feel bad that I fell, and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you.”

 

Can You do Push-Ups like Jack Palance?

For his acceptance speech on his Best Supporting Actor win for City Slickers, then 73-year old Jack Palance proved age is nothing but a number when he dropped to the floor and proved his virility by doing one-arm push-ups that men half his age may not be able to do. Why did he do it, you ask? Palance wanted to show directors questioning the mobility of actors his age that he is all that.

 

Unforgettable Red Carpet Outfits

Apart from handing out awards, the Academy Awards is also known for its outrageous fashion sense, and no one can beat Cher in that department. Who can forget her black spangled cage top and dramatic feather headpiece from the 1986 Oscars? She did that as a jibe at the Oscars. She felt the Academy did not appreciate her rebellious spirit.

From outrageous, we move to impeccable. Halle Berry’s 2002 head-turning Ellie Saab gown that hugs her every curve perfectly is one to remember, so is Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1999 pink Ralph Lauren gown, which she wore to win the Best Actress award for Shakespeare in Love. And do you remember Julia Roberts’s Valentino gown where she won Best Actress as the titular character in 2001’s Erin Brockovich?

 

Marlon Brando Declines HIs Oscar

In 1973, the inimitable Marlon Brando received an Oscar for his performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, but he turned down his invitation to attend the ceremony. In his place was Native American civil rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who read a letter from the star, who rejected his Oscar due to “the treatment of American Indians by the film industry”.

 

Get the Name Right, John Travolta

We’re sure you remember this one. John Travolta could not get the name of Broadway star and Frozen voice-actor Idina Menzel. Instead, he flubbed and called her Adele Dazeem and launched a thousand memes.

 

Wait, Was that a Naked Man on Stage?

This may be in the distant past but counts as one of the craziest, if not the craziest, moments in Oscar history. Gay Rights activist Robert Opel streaked across the stage in 1974 stark naked. Host David Niven didn’t miss a beat, quipping, “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh the man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?” Opel posed as a journalist to gain entry to the event. Sadly, he died five years after the incident, in 1979, when he was murdered during an attempted robbery of his photography and art studio at age 40.