‘Birdman’ wins best picture at Oscars dotted by memorable moments
There was no epic selfie. No overwhelming award upset. In fact, the 87th Annual Academy Awards might be best remembered for host Neil Patrick Harris’ tighty whities and award winners Patricia Arquette’s and John Legend’s impassioned cries for equality.
Sunday night’s Oscars, which named “Birdman” the best picture of the year, Julianne Moore best actress for “Still Alice” and Eddie Redmayne best actor for “The Theory of Everything,” fell somewhere between this year’s too-low-key Grammys and the always irreverent, often tipsy Golden Globes.
Harris kept things lively, delivering several laugh-out-loud one-liners that approached the line but never completely crossed it. (Except maybe those tighty whities.)
In between better-than-usual musical performances, a parade of top stars did their best with their stiff scripts and the unpredictability of live television. The telecast was long, at more than three-and-a-half hours, but it contained several memorable moments:
Winners with messages: While delivering her acceptance speech for best supporting actress in “Boyhood,” Patricia Arquette took the opportunity to push a few causes: ecological sanitation, followed by wage equality for women. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America,” she preached, bringing Meryl Streep to her feet with fist pumps.
Later, best adapted screenplay winner Graham Moore also got a standing ovation for his moving acceptance speech, in which he revealed he’d tried to commit suicide at age 16. “I felt weird and I felt different and felt like I did not belong,” he said. “And now I’m standing here. So I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels she’s weird or feels she’s different or feels she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes you do. I promise you do. Stay weird. Stay different.”
“Selma” gets its “Glory”: As expected, the overlooked film “Selma” took home the Oscar for the original song “Glory,” movingly performed during the broadcast by John Legend and Common. The two offered a political message of their own , which the orchestra didn’t dare interrupt. “We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago, but we say that ‘Selma’ is now because the struggle for justice is right now,” Legend said. “We know the voting rights act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today.”
Most awesome musical performance: Adam Levine showed off his awesome ability to sing an Oscar-nominated song “Lost Stars,” from a movie he also appeared in, “Begin Again.” Rita Ora showed off some awesome Beyonce-like pipes while performing “Grateful” from the movie “Beyond the Lights.” But the upbeat, color explosion that was Tegan and Sara’s performance of “Everything is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie” was positively full of awesome: Break dancing construction works, a rapping Andy Samberg, a dancing awesome possum, Batman on on electric guitar and Lego Oscars distributed to Oprah Winfrey and Steve Carell.
Unexpected appearance of the night: Neil Patrick Harris, in a bit that imagined him locked out of his dressing room and forced to go on stage, walked onto stage in his tighty whities and dress shoes, displaying not only his six-pack abs but also his willingness to do anything to get an Oscar laugh. Octavia Spencer’s “oh no you didn’t” look when he trotted his Underoos on stage made the bit work.
The annual farewell: Streep eloquently introduced the “In Memorium” segment of the evening, which showed water-color portraits of actors, editors, producers and critics who died this year. Among the most recognizable names that earned audible applause : Mickey Rooney, James Garner, Edward Hermann, Maya Angelou, Richard Attenborough, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Bob Hoskins, Mike Nichols and Robin Williams.
How do you solve a problem like Gaga? Take away her bacon dress and strange bras, put her in a ballgown and ask her to impersonate Julie Andrews in ‘The Sound of Music.” Has Tony Bennettt neutered Lady Gaga? Who cares? It was lovely in a strange sort of tattooed way.
The revenge of Adele Dazeem: Idina Menzel poked fun at John Travolta’s flub up from last year’s Oscars, when he famously mispronounced her name. “Please welcome to the stage my very dear friend, Glom Gazingo,” she said, as Travolta appeared in stage. “I deserved that,” he said.
This story was originally published February 22, 2015 at 11:33 PM with the headline "‘Birdman’ wins best picture at Oscars dotted by memorable moments."