Sure, last night's Oscar ceremony had a lot to be delighted about-- Kathryn Bigelow's historic Best Director win, Michael Giacchino's pitch-perfect acceptance speech, the Paranormal Activity parody starring Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. But no Oscar ceremony is without gaffes and bad judgment, and this year was no exception-- in fact, this year seemed to have a lot more going wrong for it than years past. From jokes that fell flat to uncooperative stars to a hugely memorable Kanye moment, at parts the ceremony felt more like an underrehearsed talent show than the most important Hollywood night of the year. Below we take you through some of the most regrettable parts of the evening, the ones that were hilarious and the ones that were just awkward. Save your warm fuzzies for the fashion post; this is all about schadenfreude.
Music By Prudence producer Elinor Burkett interrupts the film's director Roger Ross Williams. Also known as, "that random white woman who Kanye'ed the director guy." Apparently an ongoing dispute between the two kept Burkett from getting the memo that she wouldn't be giving the acceptance speech, and despite a valiant effort from WIlliams' 87-year-old mother to keep Burkett from leaping onstage, she got there anyway. At least she didn't yank the statue out of Williams' hands, but even without that added touch, it was the most hilariously awkward moment of the night. Relive the magic below:
The return of the interpretive dances. When Oscars producer Adam Shankman announced that the Best Original Song nominees would no longer be performing during the awards (denying the world the chance to gaze longer at "Weary Kind" performer Ryan Bingham), we all assumed he had something even more impressive instead. Instead the dancer and choreographer brought back the long-mocked interpretive dance sequences, giving us the opportunity to see street dancers pop and lock to The Hurt Locker score and a truly inexplicable take on the Up score that involved a guy doing the robot. It went from embarrassing and cheesy to just plain embarrassing, and then went on to take forever. I know Shankman was all about reliving classic Oscar moments, but this is one "classic" that deserved to be left in the past.
George Clooney's stony reaction shots. It seemed for a while like he was doing a deadpan thing, but after a while the Cloons-- whose regrettable hairdo was way too much "party in the back"-- just seemed bored and annoyed with the whole thing. He didn't have a Haiti telethon to plan this time or anything; he just seemed over it. George, you're never going to get that front row Jack Nicholson spot with an attitude like that!
The Neil Patrick Harris dance number, followed up by the American Idol presentation of the acting nominees. The musical number, charming and funny as it may have been, would have only worked if Harris were the actual host. Instead it seemed like a distraction in advance of the arrival of the actual hosts, like the elder statesman taking over for the kid who was trying too hard. Then they followed it up by lining up all the Best Actor and Actress nominees-- what are the Supporting nominees, chopped liver? Only Gabourey Sidibe seemed to enjoy standing up there, and before we could even figure out why all these poor souls were stuck onstage, they were whisked off by escorts, with all but two banished from the stage for the rest of the night. Then Martin and Baldwin took the stage, and before too long the first 10 minutes of the ceremony felt like a bad hallucination. I'm counting on forgetting it ever happened by Friday.
The tribute to horror. There's nothing wrong with the idea, per se, and it was actually pretty fun to see Freddy Krueger and Regan on the Oscar stage. But from the moment they had Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart introduce the montage, we should have known something was afoot, and what do you know, a clip from Twillight managed to work its way in there. It's almost as if the producers had put together a really great montage that felt appropriate, and then realized it didn't quite serve its purpose as a transparent grab for audience attention. So they threw the werewolf kid in there. You're welcome, tweens.
