5 Oscars Controversies That Happened Over The Years
The news that has taken social media by storm is without doubt Will Smith smacking Chris Rock in the face when he made a joke based on Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
Whether Will Smith’s action is justified or not, we will let you be the judge. That said, The Oscars has not been shy of controversies and scandals.
Let us look back at and recall some of the most infamous moments of the Oscars that will probably either make us laugh or cringe.
1. Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock
This incident is probably the freshest in our minds. It all started when Chris Rock made fun of Smith’s wife who was suffering from Alopecia, a hair loss disorder.
Apparently, Will Smith didn’t see it as just a joke and took it personally. Smith nonchalantly went up on stage and gave Rock a hard slap to the face which took everyone by surprise.
After the incident, many netizens and celebrities were divided by Smith’s action with some saying that his Oscar should be revoked while others said Rock was being way too insensitive with his joke.
Joke or not, it certainly created a drama and we’ll probably be hearing about this for the next couple of weeks as many memes have already surfaced around the Internet!
2. A Movie Mix Up From Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty
Mistakes happen. However, making one at a stage like the Oscars will certainly be extra memorable compared to other mistakes—Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty will perhaps know this feeling more than others.
Dunaway and Beatty were about to present the final award, Dunaway mistakenly called La La Land the winner, but in reality, it was Moonlight who should be taking home the award.
Apparently, the entire fiasco was an innocent mistake from Dunaway and Beatty as the error was created by two accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers but it was the presenters that took the full brunt of their error.
So no worries Dunaway and Beatty, we know it wasn’t your fault as this was truly an innocent mistake!
3. John Travolta Mispronouncing Idina Menzel’s Name
There’s totally nothing wrong with Idina Menzel’s “Let it Go” being the winner of the Best Original Song during the Oscars. However, there’s one thing that went wrong that night—it was Idina Menzel’s name!
John Travolta was supposed to announce her as the winner but instead of calling her actual name, Travolta butchered her name by calling her “Adele Dazeem”.
The awkward performance was then lifted by an awesome performance by Menzel herself but Travolta had sent his apologies to her.
Fortunately, Menzel was big enough to not hold a grudge and it is nice to see that there’s no beef created that night.
4. Light’s Out For Parasite
Parasite was arguably the most talked-about movie that year and has received universal acclaim from reviewers and critiques.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Parasite and its crew. It was when the crew was giving their acceptance speech on stage, the lights when dim and the spotlight was basically taken away from them.
This was not a good sign as Parasite was one of the very few Asian films that made it to the Oscars and to have a technical error taint its glory can be frustrating.
Still, it was nice to see that the audience stood up for the crew which included major celebs such as Charlize Theron and Tom Hanks.
5. Chris Rock and #OscarsSoWhite Controversy
If you think the slapping incident was the first controversy that Rock was part of at the Oscars then you are dead wrong.
The incident began when there were talks to boycott the Oscar due to its failure to make non-whites included. Chris Rock basically called out several notable names that fuelled the boycott and surprisingly, one of the celebs that fell on Rock’s crosshairs was none other than Jada Pinkett Smith!
The incident however did cause The Academy to make plans for the award to be more diverse in its participants which limits Academy membership to 10 years.
And there you have it, here are some of the most infamous events that occurred during the Oscars, while they are sometimes humorous, we are sure some of these mistakes are made during the heat of the moment and some were unintentional and some maybe not so much!
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