We like our Oscar winners – we really like them – but most years the ceremony includes at least one moment when we wish Hollywood would sit down and shut up.
Oscar gaffes have ranged from ill-timed political rants to outright blather, terse insults to long-winded speeches.
Although there is a long history of bad behavior on moviedom’s big night, it seems to have snowballed in recent decades. Whatever the reasons, TV viewers can be excused for reaching for the mute button.
Some of the more egregious Oscar lowlights involve winners turning the stage into a soapbox.
Michael Moore used his 2003 win for “Bowling for Columbine” to go off on the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. No matter their political beliefs, many were rankled by Moore’s “Shame on you!” tirade.
Not that Moore broke new ground. Vanessa Redgrave earned the ire of pro-Israel viewers in 1977 when she used her best supporting-actress win to champion Palestine.
Marlon Brando famously snubbed his 1972 best-actor award for “The Godfather” by sending a woman calling herself Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse the award and speak out for American Indians. She was later revealed to be an actress playing an American Indian.
Politics also played a role in 1998, when veteran director Elia Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar. Kazan was notorious for naming names during the ’50s-era Communist witch hunts, which caused industry peers to be blacklisted. Many actors, including Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris, refused to stand or applaud when Kazan took the stage.
Last year saw some onstage tension when actor Sean Penn publicly called out host Chris Rock for poking fun at Jude Law. Most viewers were left wondering whether they would pick up the next day’s newspaper and read about Penn punching out Rock backstage. He didn’t, but Rock was probably left eyeballing exits.
Sometimes Oscar just drones on.
Actress Greer Garson holds the record for the longest acceptance speech, delivered for her “Mrs. Miniver” win in 1942. Garson spoked for seven minutes after being asked to keep it to 45 seconds.
James Cameron wasn’t long-winded when “Titanic” swept the field in 1998, but his “I’m king of the world” speech remains a landmark in Hollywood bloviation.
After calling for a moment of silence to honor the ship’s dead, he bellowed: “Now let’s party till dawn!” Nice.
Speaking of disasters, one of the worst seen on an Oscar stage came in 1988, when some genius created a song-and-dance routine between Snow White and Rob Lowe. The result was an excruciating sequence straight out of a “Saturday Night Live” parody. Disney wound up suing.
Some Oscar gaffes occur in the audience.
A few years before she and Brad Pitt were an item, Angelina Jolie caused jaws to drop by snogging her brother in the auditorium seats.
Other years the jaw-dropping moments emerge from offstage.
In 1973, Robert Opal streaked the ceremony live on national TV. Presenter David Niven delivered one of the great off-the-cuff lines in Oscar history: “Just think, the only laugh that man will ever get is for stripping and showing off his shortcomings.”
Then there are moments of outright celebrity weirdness.
Exhibit A: When Jack Palance received his supporting Oscar in 1991 for “City Slickers,” the 73-year-old actor dropped to the stage and cranked out several one-armed push-ups. Impressive, but what the hey?
Perhaps winners should take a cue from Alfred Hitchcock and Joe Pesci, two Hollywood figures who, in the years they won awards, took the statuette, uttered a simple “Thank you,” and left the stage.
