Alaina Demopoulos 

Oscars 2024 viral moments: John Cena in the buff, Emma Stone’s eye-roll and Paul Giamatti’s tears

The poignant and the playful punctuated proceedings at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater
  
  


The Oscars served drama from the moment the telecast began … which was five minutes late, due to pro-Palestine protesters blocking roads and delaying some of the biggest stars’ arrivals at the Dolby Theater.

Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the night with a monologue that included jokes about Robert Downey Jr’s drug use, the disaster that is Marvel’s Madame Web, and Killers of the Flower Moon’s three-and-a-half hour runtime. Messi, the seriously impressive canine actor from Anatomy of a Fall, made a cameo. (Rumors swirled that the pup would not attend, but Messi showed up in a dashing bow-tie to prove the haters wrong.)

Not all of Kimmel’s jokes were a hit. A cutaway camera caught Emma Stone rolling her eyes when the host poked fun at the nudity in Poor Things.

A poignant moment punctuated the jokes: Kimmel brought out members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Workers (IATSE), which refused to cross picket lines during the duelling actors’ and writers’ strikes of last year.

“We were able to make deals because of the people who rallied besides us,” Kimmel said, promising that the people in the room would return the favor when IATSE came to the bargaining table.

The first award of the night, best supporting actress, went to a glowing Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who thanked both God and her publicist – the latter prompting Kimmel to quip that she shouldn’t have to pay a retainer for the rest of the year. Randolph’s emotional speech brought her The Holdovers co-star Paul Giamatti to tears.

When it came time for a spate of non-celebby awards such as best production design, best makeup and hairstyling, and best costume design, Kimmel called in John Cena for a bit that called back the infamous streaking incident of 1974. Wearing nothing but an awards envelope, Cena deadpanned that “costumes are so important” before announcing the winner (Holly Waddington for Poor Things).

Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling paired up to celebrate the contributions of stunt performers throughout Hollywood history. They also took it as a chance to play up the supposed rivalry of their dueling summer blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer. “I’m glad we can put this whole rivalry behind us,” Blunt said. “Even though, the way this awards season has turned out, it wasn’t actually much of a rivalry after all.”

Robert Downey Jr won best supporting actor – and, perhaps, also the line of the night, when he thanked his “terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order”.

Later, Twins co-stars Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger reunited to present best visual effects, which went to Godzilla Minus One. The editing team brought Godzilla figurines on stage – because why not? – and wore matching shoes with heels that looked like the monster’s claws.

Ryan Gosling’s performance of I’m Just Ken from Barbie was bound to be a crowd-pleaser, and it did not disappoint. Slash from Guns N’ Roses made an appearance, as did Barbie co-stars Margot Robbie and Simu Liu. Eagle-eyed viewers said the mis-en-scene reminded them of Marilyn Monroe’s performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Gosling wore a hot-pink sequined suit, which Kimmel later tried to auction off to the crowd. Bradley Cooper’s mother, Gloria Campano, seemed interested. Though the song did not win, another one from Barbie did: What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish.

When it finally came down to the big four awards – best actor, actress, director and picture – Kimmel quipped that dolling out the statues “shouldn’t take too long, but it will”. Oppenheimer fans delighted in Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan’s wins, with Murphy dedicating his performance to those that he vaguely called “the peacemakers”.

“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” Murphy said.

Emma Stone won for best actress – in a broken dress – though her loviest moment of the night may have been the way she celebrated when her hair and makeup artist, Nadia Stacey, won. A video showed Stone in the Dolby lobby literally running away from a conversation to watch Stacey’s speech on a nearby television. After her speech, Kimmel read a negative review that Donald Trump left of his hosting duties on Truth Social.

Perhaps more than the actual ceremony, social media kept its eyes peeled for backstage snaps. Whether it was a Taxi Driver reunion between Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst and Jessie Plemmons taking a cig break with Justine Triet (the Oscars still have a smoking section?) or Billie Eilish crashing Academy president Janet Yang’s segment, these off-the-cuff moments reminded me why we watch the Oscars. It’s not for the endless run time, overdone speeches or comedy bits, but rather than chance to see stars together in their element.

 

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