Opinion: The good, the bad and the Oscars
March 4, 2014
On Sunday evening, we saw star after star walk the red carpet into the Hollywood Dolby Theatre for the 86th Academy Awards. And like all award shows, the night was full of surprises and mishaps. Host Ellen DeGeneres brought laughs to the crowd and set a viewership of 43 million people, the highest since 2004.
As expected, Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” took home the Oscar for Best Picture, like it took home the Golden Globe. Actress Lupita Nyong’o took home the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Patsey.
For her role in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” Cate Blanchett took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Also as predicted, Jared Leto took home the Best Actor in a Supporting Role golden statue for his role as an HIV-positive transgender woman in “Dallas Buyers Club.”
My bets for Best Male in a Leading Role were on Leonardo DiCaprio, but Matthew McConaughey took home the award; we knew it was going to be close because of two different, spectacular performances. McConaughey’s 40-lb weight loss and incredible acting gave him the award he truly deserved for “Dallas Buyers Club.” There’s always next year, Leo.
During her jokes and admirations, Ellen even caused Twitter to crash because of her celebrity selfie. Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Bradley Cooper, Lupita Nyong’o and her brother all got into one shot on DeGeneres’ phone and got more than three million retweets on Twitter — making it the most retweeted picture ever.
During the show, Ellen asked some of the celebrities in the front row if they were hungry for pizza and later proceeded to have pizza delivered during the awards.
Pizza does not belong at the Academy Awards. If you’re wearing $500,000 worth of jewelry and a Dior dress, you’re not going to want that piece of pizza. It was a nice thought and all, Ellen, but it was unorganized and made me incredibly anxious.
As for musical performances of the night we saw all the nominees for Best Song perform. U2 sang their nominated song from Mandela biopic, “Ordinary Love,” Pharell’s “Happy,” Karen O and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig with “The Moon Song,” Idina Menzel with Frozen’s “Let It Go.” The legendary Bette Midler sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” after the In Memoriam section of the show. And Pink sang “Over the Rainbow” for the “Wizard of Oz” tribute.
When I heard there was going to be a “Wizard of Oz” tribute, I figured Judy Garland’s children would be onstage and maybe Liza Minnelli would sing — no. They only panned over to the three of them sitting in the audience before Pink sang. They didn’t even have the last living munchkin from the film at the awards. What kind of tribute was that?
But with all the wins and losses, surprises and incidents, we saw another great year for the Academy Awards. I just hope there isn’t another pizza at next year’s awards.