Cult Culture: Top Ten Oscar Moments

After the excitement of this year’s Academy Awards, Cult Culture takes a look back at some of the Oscars’ most notorious moments

| UPDATED

This week, Hollywood’s hottest gathered once again for a debaucherous night of golden statues, ball gowns and champagne. We take a look at 10 moments that have gone down in Oscar history.

While we’ve been suffering gale force winds, across the pond our Californian pals spent Sunday night honouring the finest that film has to offer, and this year was no exception. The lights were bright, the gowns were glamourous but no ceremony goes down without a glitch. Speaking of down, that was the direction Jennifer Lawrence was heading…

JLaw takes a tumble (2013)

Apparently award ceremonies and Jennifer Lawrence do not mesh well together.  Jennifer had already suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction at the Golden Globes earlier this month, when the bottom half of her dress went MIA. We were excited to hear that she won Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, but she may have been too excited on the way up to collect her award. If you take a look at her mammoth dress, you’ll understand why she had trouble walking up the stairs. Luckily she had the support of two dashing gentlemen on hand, in the form of Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman who both rushed to help her. Our tip to you Jennifer: maybe next time, wear a dress with a shorter train?

Age is just a number… (1979 + 2012)
If Justin Henry is anyone to go by, we should have been nominated for an Academy Award 10 years ago, so we’re a bit behind schedule. At 9 years old, his performance in Kramer vs Kramer garnered a nod from the Academy, and although he didn’t win, there’s one title he’s still the king of: youngest nominee ever. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Christopher Plummer showed that 82 is the new 28 (yeah, that’s not going to stick…) when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners in 2012. The standing ovation was well earned for this screen legend.

Audrey and her $131,000 dress (1953)
Fashion icon Audrey Hepburn turned heads at the Oscars in 1953, wearing the same Edith Head dress that featured in Roman Holiday, the film that won her Best Actress. Until recently, no one knew the whereabouts of the famous dress, but in November 2011, it transpired that it had been hiding within the family and was auctioned off for precisely $131,292. Think of how much damage you could do with that in Topshop on a Saturday. A girl can only dream.

Is she allowed to say that? (2011)

The Academy must not have been very happy with Melissa Leo at the 2011 Oscars when she dropped the ‘F-bomb’ during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in The Fighter. We excuse her for her foul language, we’d be fucking excited too if we’d won. Oops. Luckily, TV is never truly live anymore and her indiscretion was swiftly bleeped out. Too bad they couldn’t edit out her shocked face.

Hugh Jackman’s one-man show (2009)
While he’s not running around as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman must be exercising his vocal chords as demonstrated in the 2009 Academy Awards opening sequence. We felt tired just watching him as he covered just about every film that was nominated in his 8-minute performance, from Slumdog Millionaire to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For all you Les Mis fans, Anne Hathaway also guest starred when he was in need of a buddy for the Frost/Nixon segment.

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Terhj8mjPwY[/youtube]

Who run da world? Beyoncé Kathryn Bigelow (2009)
The ultimate F-you after a nasty divorce, Kathryn Bigelow demonstrated the strength of girl power when she made Oscar history as the first female to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker, beating out her ex-husband James Cameron. You may have heard of his film, Avatar? Just some low-budget Greenpeace Pocahontas propaganda.

Tears stream. Down her face. (1999)
Gwyneth Paltrow showed her not-so-cold heart, playing the part of a grateful and slightly blubbering Oscar winner for her role in Shakespeare In Love. (Got it yet?) If you could hear through the sobbing, you would hear 3 minutes of celeb name-dropping and totes emosh odes to the Paltrow clan. Bless her, it just got a bit overwhelming.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG9p1FFwxb0[/youtube]

Ben Stiller, go home to Pandora, you’re drunk! (2010)

Ben Stiller took makeup and hair a little bit too far when he presented the award for Best Makeup at the 2010 Oscars. Funny thing is, as he mentioned, Avatar was not even nominated in that category. Awkward. Much to James Cameron’s amusement, he even attempted a little bit of the Na’vi language.

Ok, now you’re just being greedy… (2013)
Daniel Day-Lewis proves that three’s a charm when he scooped up his third Academy Award for his performance as Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln. London born Lewis made Oscar history as the first to win 3 times in the Best Actor category. Either he’s giving the Academy sexual favours (let’s hope not) or he’s really just that good. Here’s to another 3 more!

This ball of light.., (2011)
And finally, we leave you with our favourite video from the Oscars. The best films from 2011 get the autotune treatment, and the result is hilarious. Unfortunately, Youtube let us down (for once) and we couldn’t find the full version, but enjoy this little Harry Potter snippet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIJ17PeDDAc[/youtube]