Oscars: 7 unforgettable moments at the Academy Awards

The Academy Awards are Hollywood's most prestigious and glamorous get together to recognise excellence in the film industry.

From the gorgeous gowns on the red carpet to the surprise winners, we're on board for hours of live coverage, mainly to see our favourite actors and actresses being themselves with all the quirks and nuances.

Academy Award statues.
The 94th Academy Awards take place this weekend. Photo: Getty

Of course, when you get a confident group of people together in a social environment with alcohol available, anything can happen and often does, even when those people are mega-famous.

Here are our top funny, crazy or down-right embarrassing moments from the Oscars ...

Ellen's selfie with the stars

When 2014 Oscars' host Ellen DeGeneres posted a selfie from the event with the caption, "If only Bradley's arm was longer", it almost broke the internet!

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Posted to Twitter and Instagram, it was quickly liked and retweeted in record numbers.

By the end of the ceremony, it had been retweeted more than two million times!

And over on Insta, it has been liked 1.3m million times.

As this was posted before Instagram became the behemoth it is today, with celebs curating and posting every day, it really was a big deal.

Bradley Cooper takes a selfie with stars including Ellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and more.
Spot the A-lister! Ellen's 2014 selfie at the Oscars. Photo: Instagram/@theellenshow

John Travolta flubs an intro

Also at the 2014 Academy Awards, John Travolta realised that perhaps he should have practised before attempting to read aloud what was written for him.

He was supposed to be introducing Idina Menzel to sing the Oscar-nominated tune Let It Go from Frozen, but instead mangled her name, calling her Adele Dazeem instead.

Luckily there were no hard feelings, with Idina admitting the moment has made her even more famous.

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"It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me," Idina revealed last year.

"He’s written so many nice, apologetic emails, he's sent flowers. He’s so kind. To make up for it, he would, like, fly wherever at this point, he’s so sweet."

Angelina Jolie's leg

At the 2012 Oscars, when Brangelina was still a thing, Ange wore a stunning floor-length black velvet Versace dress, with a thigh-high side split.

But it wasn't the dress that got everyone talking; it was the unusual pose that saw her right leg become a meme of its own!

Whether she was posing on the red carpet or presenting on stage, she struck the same pose with her leg out.

In 2019 she did her best to explain to Extra what happened, but we're really none the wiser!

"There’s a whole longer story behind that," she said. "I had a more complicated dress and I wore the more comfortable dress, which was that one, and I think I was just so comfortable.

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"I think when you feel comfortable, when you feel yourself – which is very much the theme of the film, and we know this in life – you embrace it. And sometimes, maybe it appears to be a thing, I don’t know."

Actress Angelina Jolie strikes a pose which reveals one leg as she arrives on the red carpet for the 84th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2012 in Hollywood, California.
Angelina Jolie struck her unusual pose on the red carpet at the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Photo: Getty Images
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arriving for the 84th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles.
And there's that leg again as she poses with hubby at the time, Brad Pitt. Photo: Getty Images

Two actresses tie for Best Actress

There have been a handful of times (okay, six!) when the Academy has been unable to separate two nominees and have awarded both of them.

Most famous was when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand shared Best Actress at the Oscars in 1969.

Both had received 3030 votes, Katharine for The Lion in Winter and Barbra for Funny Girl.

With Katharine absent from the ceremony, 26-year-old Barbra took to the stage, uttering the words "hello gorgeous" as she took the statuette.

Jennifer Lawrence fall

Tripping while everyone is watching can happen to the best of us, and that's exactly what happened when an obviously shocked and excited Jennifer Lawrence walked up the stairs to accept her Best Actress award for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013.

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“I had everything in my head. I was very, very nervous, but I was ready,” Jennifer revealed later on the Absolutely Not podcast.

"All of the adrenaline clears out and they call my name and I’m elated and I’m in shock.

"And then I fell, and it erased everything from my mind. My full brain went blank. I can look back at it now fondly, but for a very long time the fall thing was very sensitive.”

Actress Jennifer Lawrence in a ball gown after stumbling on the stairs, covers her face after winning the Best Actress award for 'Silver Linings Playbook' during the Oscars held at the Dolby Theatre on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence trips on the stairs leading to the stage after winning the Best Actress award for Silver Linings Playbook at the 2013 Oscars. Photo: Getty Images

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announce wrong best film Oscar

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are consummate professionals, which is why people were so shocked when they announced the wrong winner for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards.

They had read the winner as La La Land, but in the middle of the acceptance speech, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz made the announcement: "There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture."

It turns out the pair had been given the wrong envelope.

"I opened the envelope, and it said, 'Emma Stone, La La Land.' That's why I took such a long look at Faye, and at you. I wasn't trying to be funny," Warren explained about the time it took him to read the winner after opening the envelope.

They had been passed the envelope for Best Actress by mistake!

Actors Faye Dunaway (L) and Warren Beatty speak onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty on stage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards before announcing the Best Picture award. Photo: Getty Images

Jack Palance does push-ups on stage

It's not every day you see an Oscar winner drop and give you 20 (or three) while accepting his award, but that's what Jack Palance did when accepting the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as Curly in City Slickers.

At 73, he knew Hollywood was looking to younger actors and he used his speech to address that.

"You know, there are times when you reach a certain age plateau where the producers say, they talk about you and they say, 'Well, what do you think? Can we risk it? Can we do it? Can we use him?'," Palance said.

"The other guy says, 'I don't know, let's look at some younger ones. We can make them look older, but this one, you know, it's kind of difficult.'

"They forget, they forget to ask that you go out there and you do all these … things. Like for instance, you know, [and leaves podium] you go out there, you do these one-arm push-ups."

Jack Palance pictured left with his award and at right after he dropped to the floor to do one-handed push-ups after accepting his Oscar.
Jack Palance dropped to the floor to do one-handed push-ups after accepting his Oscar. Photo: Getty Images and YouTube/oscars

The 94th Academy Awards will be televised live on Monday 28 March from 5.30am (AEDT) on Seven and 7plus.

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