Oscar's Most Embarrassing Moments

None that we know of

"You like me, you really like me!"

Poor Shelley.

Robert Duvall being totally classless.

That 1999 Oscar acceptance speech was the start of the Gwyneth hate

The 1980,1983, and 2012 Oscars stand out to me for some reason.

When Ben Affleck won for Argo and spent his entire speech talking about how torturous his marriage was. So embarrassing and cringeworthy, yet so honest.

R6

Poor Jennifer Garner, she enabled that.

I can't believe that Duvall clip. I'm surprised it's my first time seeing it. What a jerk.

My contribution is the Snow White open of 1989. G was there!

vanilla untalented paltrow won only cause her daddi o Weinstein bought it for her....

insane that her shitty movie/performance beat such gr8 actresses...

Goodness gracious Gwyneth! Everyone thinking "can it be over now...?"

What’s the story behind the Duvall clip?

I haven’t seen it before either.

According to one of the comments:

[quote]Duvall claimed James Caan was making faces at him and he hadn't realized what he'd said. He apologized to Shelley who accepted. But remained pissed. That was Shelley!

LA LA LAND!

Sally Kirkland trying hard not to say "fuck that cunt!" after losing to Cher in 1987.

Ellen Burstyn not even remotely able to contain her shock and Joanne Woodward saying "shit!" after losing to Glenda Jackson in 1974.

Sacheen Littlefeather not accepting Marlon Brando's Oscar and freaking the hell out of Roger Moore and Liv Ullman.

Vanessa Redgrave and her "Zionist hoodlums."

I don’t hate J Law nearly as much as y’all, but hers has to be up there. Falling on her face + forgetting to thank the director? Yikes.

It was HIS fault!

JLaw tripping on her way to the stage for her best actress win could have been one but she handled it very well. And she wished Emmanuelle Riva a Happy Birthday which was nice.

Lillian Gish reading the Best Picture nominees as if she's performing a soliloquy from Joan of Arc and almost calling "Ordinary People" "Ordinary Picture."

Few things are more embarrassing than Ann Reinking performing the theme from "Against All Odds."

I know it's not the Oscars, but no list of cringeworthy awards show moments would be complete without Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. performing Blondie's "Call Me" at the Golden Globes.

Halle Barry’s speech was embarrassing. A blubbering mess

Can someone provide the context around Redgrave's Zionist hoodlums comments at R17? What was happening politically at the time that made her, or the film she won for, so controversial?

Thanks in advance!

The hilariously awful production of "For Your Eyes Only" at the 1982 Oscars, complete with pyrotechnics, laser beams, and Sheena Easton running up and down the stairs with a toy rifle.

Was it an Oscar Awards when Barbra pronounced Michael Learned's name as Michelle?

R21 Lillian Gish is a goddamned treasure!!!

MMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Civil War a distant second.

Why focus on embarrassing moments?

I cherish many times Oscar got things right!

Lillian in Night of the Hunter

Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson, and Emma Stone’s wins.

TimoTay’s nomination.

R25 The controversy began with her involvement in a preceding film, "The Palestinian," a documentary which she narrated about Palestinians and the PLO. Upon her nomination for 'Julia', in which she played a woman murdered by the Nazi regime for her anti-fascist activism, effigies of her were burned by the ultra-nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane. She chose the podium at the Oscars to respond to the criticism, directing some of it rather pointedly at Rabbi Kahane.

R25, well, Redgrave is a supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and spoke in the their defence. The Jewish people in Hollywood didn't care for her referring to Israelis as "Zionist hoodlums."

I remember that moment really well.

This one really could have been avoided if the director trusted Bette.

IIRC, Redgrave was virtually blacklisted after her speech. She came back with Julia but I may be mixing up my timeline.

Whatever possessed the Academy to give Brie Larson an Oscar? She wasn't even that good in Room. It was like they confused her with the character she played, as if they didn't understand that she hadn't been held captive in a shed for 10 years. Though I understand why they would think that.

Damnit. I am such a fool. Ignore my comment above.

R37, she came back with a Best Actress nomination for The Bostonians in 1984.

The oscars really is embarrassing. They should trim it down completely. I loved Gloria Graham’s simple speech even though it may have been controversial at the time. No one wants to be preached at by these glorified performing monkeys.

R38: What a waste especially since her career took a nosedive after Captain Marvel. She had one supporting role in Just Mercy, which really didn’t do anything and a new Apple TV series.

I don't mind a good speech.

Paddy Chayefsky slamming the hell out of Vanessa Redgrave on the same night:

Madonna singing off key and shaking like a leaf while trying to pretend to be Marilyn Monroe.

Anne Hathaway’s “it came true” speech

The [italic]wickedly[/italic] talented...

Ghostbusters performance.

R47 I still don’t get how he pulled that name out of thin air. It’s so bizarre.

Rami Malek's win

Julia Roberts. That is all.

[quote]Anne Hathaway’s “it came true” speech

If you thought that moment was embarrassing, see her cloying response to being questioned about what she meant by "it". Starts at 5:16.

Anne was not that good in Les Mis

Anne is still a try hard. Talented but so annoying.

R52 I think her response just made me diabetic.

I have no idea why she went into that breathy baby voice as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Bitch, just say your dream was to win an Oscar.

Eu te amo, OP!

I'm still laughing at the post about Lillian Gish, Joan of Arc and Ordinary Picture. Thank you!

Ruby Keeler on lots of pills presenting the Best Song nominees with Kris Kristofferson as he laughs nervously.

Paltrow looks awful in that dress with her flat chest. The severe grace kelly hairstyle doesn’t work on her because she has a large beaky nose.

She and Michelle Williams yearn to be delicate featured gamines but Paltrow has the beak and no lips and Williams is fairly chinless and pudgy faced.

You really need certain features and symmetry to pull off a severe hairstyle or pixie cut. DL icon Mia Farrow had such a face.

Er, Ronana @ R61, your mother is NOT a DL icon.

Was it Gwyneth's blubbering that caused the hate....her lacklustre performance...or the fact that her speech was long?

R62 lol I debated whether to refer to Farrow as “DL villain,” or “anti-hero” since I know she is not a “DL favorite.”

I used “icon” because she is definitely discussed here in heated arguments for and against.

Say what you want about her more recent behavior, she WAS lovely in her youth. I love her version of Daisy Buchanan. She really captured the character’s alluring warmth AND cruel carelessness.

Let's add this to the list please....

Beyonce singing all the nominated songs thst year was weird enough (she's not versatile), but then her faux "sexy" take on this song about how the Phantom of the Opera needs to Learn to be Lonely only made me hate the film adaptation more. They added this dumb new song in just to make that mess of a film eligible for an Oscar...and then this is the performance they deliver?

Adding crap to crap....just for an easy nomination.

Sad little tits in the horrid pink dress. Fernanda should have aimed a show at her.

Why did Duvall laugh at Winters?

What about me?

The 11 minutes that ruined Alan Carr's career.

R68 That wasn't embarrassing. That was an example of a brilliant recovery.

Who even was that streaker?

There are not many surprises at the Oscars, who is going to make a fool of themselves this year is more surprising and fun than the ceremony and who are the winners.

No mention of Glenn dressing up as an Oscar!? And losing

Nicole Kidman's strange ginormous alien hands seal clapping at the Oscars.

R69? I believe it was Can’t Stop The Music that ruined Allan Carr’s career. Ruining the Oscars a decade later was just a side hustle.

Has any lady's boob ever fallen out?

Julia Roberts turning Denzel Washington's win into something all about her by explaining "I love my life" after she'd announced his win.

Julia Snoberts should not have won, should ha e been big Ellen Burstyn as that mad woman with orange hair

Surely Nancy Walker has to take some of the blame for that debacle R75. The Oscars finished him off. And nary a caftan was seen at Spago from that night on.

Julia Roberts' indulgent donkey laugh during her speech was insane.

R71 Here's a story on the Oscar streaker. Interesting life, sad ending.

[quote]Was it an Oscar Awards when Barbra pronounced Michael Learned's name as Michelle?

I don't remember what awards show that was or who mispronounced the name, but I'm always amazed that presenters who KNOW they are going to be reading the names of nominees don't make SURE they know the correct pronunciations of all of those names in advance. And in the case of Michael Learned, who does have an unusual first name for a woman, I'm surprised that no one took the presenter aside (whoever it was) and gave a heads-up about the correct pronunciation.

It was the Emmys and Michael was a bit curt

The Spreep hate too R4. Her phony gosh golly you mean me expression did it for me

[quote]Her phony gosh golly you mean me expression did it for me

Spreep does use the Oscars to overact between projects.

[quote]It was the Emmys and Michael was a bit curt

Thanks. I remember that she was a bit curt when she accepted the award and corrected the pronunciation, but I think she was justified in being perturbed, for the reasons I mentioned.

R15 Holy fuckballs!

There was potential that Miss Barbra Streisand gets an Oscar from Helen fucking Lawson!

"I'm stunned and the name is Michael."

That was hardly "curt" and James Franciscus is not Barbra Streisand.

As someone who also has an easy name to confuse, I can assure you it wasn't Michael's first time.

R51----seriously bitches. It took 50 replies? DL is slipping.

Charlize Theron's "Finally a real African won the Oscar - a pretty African ACTING ugly!!!!!!!!" moment.

Damn, I had forgotten how insanely gorgeous James Franciscus was.

How did Michael win three Emmys for playing that dreary Olivia Walton?!

A terrified Jennifer Jones shaking like a leaf at the 1987 Academy Awards.

R74 and R76 I don't know if you are the same posters or separate but I love you. My stomach is aching from laughing so hard. Freaking love that kinda humor.

Hillary Swank winning twice was embarrassing

Roberto benigni should be an example where less world be more!

His foreign language win features the chair walking.

Poor Annette.

Not just an embarrassing moment but TWO of them.

Glenn's gold dress did look lovely, and would have gone so well with that Oscar had she won it.

R100 what are the odds that dress was torn into pieces the minute she got home? Glenn in the rose garden with an axe.

How about Barbra tripping on her Oscar pajamas?

R102: The more embarrassing thing was that the pants turned out to be transparent under the lights.

Wasn;t that a costume from On a Clear Day?

[quote][R51]----seriously bitches. It took 50 replies? DL is slipping.

This, but with r69.

The creators of "South Park" trying to be cute and clever, but instead looking like tools.

Sean Penn trying to snub his own wife before going up to accept his Oscar.

[quote] Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty present Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner with the Oscar® for Best Picture for "Moonlight" at the...

r13, I'm not interested in these negative things. Why can't you be obsessed about positive things? About Marlon Brando ? About the Kusturica movie that was the hit of all of Europe and Cannes? About the film I did with Brando, you know?

Streisand's outfit was not from On a Clear Day... but it was designed by Arnold Scaasi who designed the contemporary costumes in the film (Cecil Beaton designed the period frocks).

R109, "First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower, "Lady Bird" Johnson, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush wore Scaasi gowns to special occasions. Barbara Bush even attended the CFDA Awards as Scaasi's date in 1997, when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award."

Not the most embarrassing by a long shot and NEVER mentioned but Sissy Spacek's presentation of Best Actor in 1982 (from 1981) where she clearly forgot to name the film each actor was nominated for!

Has that ever happened before or since?

When Joanne Woodward wore a homemade dress for Three Faces of Eve nomination/win, it put fashion back 50 years in Hollywood. So proclaim Joan Crawford.

R111 That's strange. I checked the Best Leading Actress category for that ceremony and Jon Voight named the actresses along with their films, so it wasn't just something they were doing that night. Perhaps there was something wrong with the teleprompter.

Cuba Gooding Jr and his obnoxious, smarmy, over the top acceptance speech when they threw an Affirmative Action Oscar his way. It was like watching some cringeworthy minstrel show. He was the male Gwyneth.

R106 They were on mushrooms.

For the young'uns here who don't know: Arnold Scaasi was Arnold Isaacs when he was born. He cleverly reversed his last name and became a 7th Ave. star.

Frances McDormand's second oscar. Everything about it from her atrocious performance, makeup free face, burlap dress, and her inclusion rider speech.

Why the fuck did Frances get a standing ovation for her first Oscar win? Her performance in "Fargo" was hardly anything to rave about and Emily Watson delivered the best performance of that year in "Breaking the Waves".

The producers of Patton were smart enough not to let George C Scott refusing his Best Actor Oscar create a scene, like Brando later did with the Indian actress. Still an awkward moment though because you knew the subtext.

Bump

Julia Roberts has an Oscar! Nothing else compares to this nadir in awards history.

The Will Smith smack of Chris Rock ranks pretty high now.

A tie:

-- Oprah-Uma.

-- The wrong-envelope fiasco.

What's Oprah and Uma?

r13, I don't understand why it took them so long to correct the mistake. Does only the president of the academy know who the winners are prior to the telecast. That is absolute ghetto craziness. That kinda was Oscars jump the shark moment.

I remember watching it live but boy seeing it again. Were Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway on sedatives or something. Are they retarded. WTF, lol.

R124 I thought kids weren't allowed to post here. Anyway, in case you missed it.

Was he making fun of their names?

R128 He was being Dave.

[quote]Why did Duvall laugh at Winters?

She was nominated for "The Poseidon Adventure" in Supporting, and so was Susan Tyrell for the movie "Fat City." When they read out the title "Fat City," Duvall started laughing at Shelley because she was fat.

I'm serious. It was "ha ha she's fat and you just said the word 'fat' lol this is the height of hilarity!" Hard to explain to people today just how lame and weird the 1970s were.

I never liked Goop’s pink dress and I realize it’s all because she has no tits. If she wore a padded bra at least, the silhouette would be different and not look so baggy in front and hanging so low. Who thought all that rib cage and skin was a sexy (or even pretty) look?

r127 Anne Bancroft did it so much better.

r131, The 90s was all about that chic heroin look.

I actually remember loving Madonna in that old Hollywood glamour getup, and thinking she batted it out of the park. Maybe not technically perfect, but it was her singing and it took a lot of guts. Reminds me of the time at Night of 1000 Stars that Pia Zadora took the stage and everyone was prepared to laugh and hoot at her, and she sang the shit out of some Sondheim song. Everyone had to begrudgingly admit she gave a good performance.

Needy, much?

The Divine, Goldie and Diane. Not embarrassing at all. Just fun.

Billy Crystal called them the Yentas of Eastwick.

Ann-Margret presenting at the Oscars. She obviously forgot to remove her shower cap before she left the house.

Cringe

This is not embarrassing…but always deserves a mention…this was fierce, savage and—ultimately—pointless bitchery. Davis was incensed when JC took the stage. Joan really planned this supremely.

I didn't understand why the straps of Paltrow's gown wasn't shortened, she had a few wardrobe malfunctions that night

I like Paltrow. She's a very good actress. AND a notoriously bad dresser. It wasn't just the night she won an Oscar. She knows she has a boxy and flat chested body - but insists in some semi punk princess way of wearing styles that don't flatter her. She thinks highly of herself and wears what she wants. She's not really interested in looking too fatale. That's why the pink princess gown was a bigger misstep than usual. It doesn't even fit her. PINK? Weinstein must have made her. I don't think Paltrow gives a fuck about red carpet couture. Gwyneth is a pretty cool bitch - but even her mother was cringing during her Oscar acceptance speech.

Anyone who thinks for a second that Weinstein fucked Paltrow is out of their mind. But Miramax controlled a lot of things. Powerful studios controlled who won the Oscars until recently.

Emily Watson would have a much better CHANCE of winning today.

This was embarrassing - not for the things Michael Moore said, but clearly for some of the stuffy, candy-ass actors in the audience who either felt they were above it all or were too fucking terrified to applaud his speech in front of the cameras.

R14 Watching Sally Kirkland literally hyperventilate when Paul Newman reads her name as a nominee is just sad. She wanted that Oscar so badly.

How can I forget the moment when Denzel won and Julia made it all about herself? Didn't she even kiss him on the lips? What a douche.

R134, agreed, Madonna is not off-key.

What also sucked about excluding Phil Collins from performing at the 1985 Oscars was that all 5 nominated songs were number one hits that year and I don’t think that’s happened since, All 4 other songs had their original performers.

Reinkings ex herb Allen must’ve called in favors to get her that gig. She should’ve choreographed and performed a routine to the nominated scores and the now defunct song score category that prince won that year.

[...]

r144, Denzel and Julia were so insanely beautiful during that time. They should have just made love on stage. I wonder if they hooked up during Pelican Brief.

I thought it was embarrassing for Julia, frankly. She tried to kiss Denzel (at the Oscars) and he wouldn't kiss her. He also wouldn't kiss her on the Pelican Brief. He didn't want to downgrade black women.

My vote is for Miss Marlon Brando because of Goldie Hawn's reaction when she read it out. The tired speech by the actress was anticlimax and just a buzz kill already.

Denzel and Julia probably did fuck. His wife suspected, and he didn't want to give her more ammunition.

I suspect lots of Denzel stories will come out someday.

R151 I heard Denzel was a whore on sets. Quite the charmer, nothing seedy or me 2 about it. Ol school womanizer. I heard he smashed Eva Mendez and Sanaa Lathan during the filming of Our of Time.