Oscars' biggest blunders - Will Smith slap to actress' horror fall to wrong winner announced
The Oscarsare supposed to be Hollywood’s most glamorous night, but over the years the ceremony has delivered just as much drama as it has gold statues.
From jaw-dropping mistakes to shocking on-stage moments, the Academy Awards has built a reputation for producing the kind of chaos no scriptwriter could dream up. Whether it is the wrong winner being announced, stars taking a tumble on the stairs, or an actual assault, the show has never been short on scandal.
Now, ahead of another Academy Awards ceremony, the Mirror
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There have been awkward moments at the Oscars before, but few compare to the stunned silence that followed Will Smith walking on stage and slapping presenter Chris Rock live on air in 2022.
The shocking incident happened after Chris made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head while presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature. At first, Will appeared to laugh along, but moments later he strode up to the stage and struck Chris across the face.As he returned to his seat, the actor then shouted: "Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth."
It was a wild moment and the look on Rock's face remains imprinted in the retinas of many. The room was left reeling, and the moment instantly eclipsed almost everything else that happened that night. In an extraordinary twist, Will later returned to the stage to accept the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, delivering an emotional speech through tears.
The fallout was huge. He later apologised publicly, resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years. The slap has since gone down as one of the most extraordinary and uncomfortable moments in the ceremony’s history.
What should have been a triumphant end to the 2017 Oscars turned into total confusion when the wrong film was announced as Best Picture.
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were on stage to present the biggest prize of the night when Faye declared La La Land the winner. The cast and crew poured onto the stage and began their acceptance speeches, only for it to emerge that there had been a mix-up.
In reality, Moonlight had won Best Picture. It later transpired that Warren had been handed the wrong envelope, one for Best Actress, which named Emma Stone for La La Land. The awful error played out live in front of millions, with the La La Land team having to stop mid-speech and hand over the spotlight to the real winners.
On stage fallJennifer Lawrence was having the kind of year most actors can only dream of when she won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook. But before she could properly enjoy her big moment, disaster struck on the way to the stage.
Wearing a huge Dior gown, Jennifer tripped on the stairs as she made her way up to collect her Oscar, falling in front of a room full of A-listers and a global TV audience. The actress quickly recovered and handled the moment with humour, joking that the audience were only giving her a standing ovation because they felt sorry for her.
Far from hurting her popularity, the stumble became one of the most replayed and talked-about moments of the night, and only seemed to make fans love her more.
Long before social media could turn an awards show incident into instant global news, the Oscars had already produced one of its wildest ever live interruptions.
During the 1974 ceremony, presenter David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor when a naked man suddenly ran across the stage behind him. The streaker was later identified as photographer and activist Robert Opel, who flashed a peace sign as he made his unexpected appearance.
Rather than losing control of the room, David responded with impeccable timing, delivering a cutting one-liner that drew huge laughs from the audience.
The bizarre security lapse became one of the most notorious moments in Oscars history and proved that even the most tightly controlled ceremony can descend into madness in seconds.
The Oscars has always sold itself as a celebration of film at its finest, but part of its strange appeal is that anything can happen once the cameras start rolling. And, time and again, they really have.
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