The Best and Worst Moments of the Oscars 2014

The 86th annual Academy Awards have come and gone and with Ellen DeGeneres at the helm, the night went smoothly and had many more good memories than bad. We break down our personal favorite best and worst parts of the Oscars.

There is still a debate raging over whether or not Ellen DeGeneres was a hit or miss, and to be fair to her, some of us are still pining the lost days of Steve Martin and Billy Crystal hosting. There were some good moments and some not so good (ouch on the Liza Minnelli comment) but it wasn’t as cringe-worthy as last year with host Seth MacFarlane, who managed to insult just about everything and everyone. Now for the best and worst in no particular order…

BEST: The Pizza

Who doesn’t want a slice every now and then? The current debate across the web is whether or not the pizza delivery was staged or something Ellen just decided to do. Pepsi is an official sponsor of the Oscars and when the pizza was being handed out there were Coke logos all over the pizza box–we are betting this wasn’t all staged after all. Either way, Brad Pitt looked quite content with his pepperoni slice. (And now everyone will want pizza today)

Image Courtesy of E! Online

BEST: Benedict Cumberbombs

Benedict Cumberbatch was at the Oscars supporting the entire team for 12 Years A Slave and seemed to be having quite the time photobombing on the red carpet and inside the event! The Sherlock actor jumped in behind a photo of U2 and then during the live telecast leaned over Angelina Jolie to get into a photo with Ellen.

WORST: Matthew McConaughey’s Acceptance Speech

McConaughey picked up an Oscar last night for Best Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and the speech initially started out great as he thanked his late father, his mother who was in attendance, his wife and sons. Then, he thanked himself and said that he was his own hero. What do you think? Classy or tacky? Regardless of the possible meaning behind it, he still thanked himself.

“And to my hero. That’s who I chase. When I was 15 years old I had a very important person in my life come and ask me ‘Who’s your hero?'” he continued. “I said, ‘I thought about it and it’s me in ten years. So I turned 25 ten years later and that same person comes to me and goes, ‘Are you a hero?’ I said, ‘Not even close!’ She said why and I said, ‘My hero is me at 35.’ You see, every day, and every week, and every month, and every year of my life my hero is always ten years away. I’m never going to be my hero. I’m not going to obtain that and that’s fine with me because it keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.”

WORST: John Ridley Snubs Steve McQueen

When Ridley won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, it seemed that McQueen was none too impressed with his coworkers win, although he stood and gave him an enthusiastic round of applause. Ridley returned the gesture by breezing right past McQueen without a glance and didn’t thank him in his acceptance speech. This in turn left McQueen looking miffed and he returned the favor by not thanking him when the film won Best Picture. Nikki Finke of the Hollywood Reporter tweeted, “My sources attributing John Ridley-Steve McQueen cold shoulder at Oscars tonight to dispute over screenplay credit.”

This isn’t the first time Ridley has gone head-to-head with a director; in 1999 Ridley and David O. Russell were enveloped in a heated battle over “Three Kings”, the writer blocking Russell from publishing a book about the screenplay. Of that incident Ridley had said to Entertainment Weekly, “This is a guy who every step of the way has tried to grab credit, I never heard a word while he was shooting the movie. Never saw any of the script changes. And then finally, a year later, I get a copy of the script, and my name isn’t even on it. It’s ‘by David O. Russell.’ My name is nowhere.”

UPDATE: The full account of the Ridley/McQueen feud can be found here at the Wrap

BEST: Lupita Nyong’o’s Heartfelt Acceptance Speech

If you weren’t rooting for her, she certainly may have won you over with her eloquent and emotional acceptance speech when she won for Best Supporting Actress. She immediately allows everyone the chance to see her as she truly comes to terms with everything, pointing out that her joy unfortunately had to stem from someone else’s pain and suffering. She explained that the film had been “the joy of my life”, and later in the speech said to McQueen, “I’m certain the dead are standing about you and they are grateful and so am I”. After thanking her family, friends and of course, the Academy, she ended the speech with a line so touching it’s still making us misty eyed today: “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

You can hear her speech in it’s entirety here at Just Jared

WORST: The Omission of Certain People from the In Memoriam Segment

While the In Memoriam helped everyone bid farewell to many of those we lost in 2013, there were some people that were left out such as Glee’s Cory Monteith, Law and Order’s Dennis Farina and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s James Avery. Even Ruth Robinson Duccini, who was the last of the surviving Munchkin’s from the Wizard of Oz was left off the list–even though Pink did a rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” during the show. Others that were omitted were Phil Ramone, Tom Clancy, Pete Seeger, Lou Reed, Alicia Rhett, Jim Jacks, Gary David Goldberg, Marcia Wallace, Lee Thompson Young, Lisa Robin Kelly and Jean Stapleton.

BEST: Kevin Spacey

Not much has to be said about this but he was great to watch sitting just behind some of the nominated actors and actresses of the year. When Ellen DeGeneres decided to do a selfie with Meryl Steep (which turned into a star-studded photo and has since been the most retweeted photo with over 2 million retweets), Spacey was seen in the background leaping up from his seat and running down the aisle just in time to get in the photo. He was also incredibly excited to get the pizza, taking the box with him back to his seat with a big grin on his face.

WORST: John Travolta’s Introduction to Idina Menzel

Worse than the hair piece that he wore was Travolta’s introduction to Idina Menzel, butchering her name so badly that it sounded something along the lines of “Adele Dazeem”. Whether or not the singer noticed is up for debate, as well as her performance itself.

BEST: Bill Murray’s Touching Comment about Harold Ramis

When Bill Murray and Amy Adams took the stage to present the award for Best Cinematographer, Murray mentioned that he already knew a winning one; the late Harold Ramis. It was brief, but the moment was touching nonetheless.

What were your favorite moments from the Oscars? Sound off in the comments below!