With her wacky banters, wit and sarcasm, Ellen DeGeneres made the 2014 annual Oscars the most watched Academy Awards since 2000 when 46.53 million tuned in.
The entertainer, who returned to host the Oscars for a second time, previously hosted the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, for which she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
It’s no surprise the television icon who began her career as an emcee at a local comedy club in her hometown of New Orleans upped her game at the 86th Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California.
With monologs packed with snarky jokes and cynicism directed at Hollywood’s movies stars, DeGeneres, in true comedic form delivered.
There was a jab at the legendary singer Liza Minnelli, who she claimed was a man in drag masquerading as the legend. She chided the nominated actors for attending “a total of six years of college” and didn’t fail to constantly remind actress Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar last year of the tumble she took on the red carpet. She even mocked Oscar winner Jared Leto for how pretty he is and brought attention to actor Jonah Hill about his public masturbation scene in the film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“For those of you watching from around the world, it’s been a tough couple of days for us here,” said DeGeneres in her opening monologue. “It’s been raining… thank you for your prayers.”
Sporting a dazzling array of Saint Laurent designer suits, she followed in the footsteps of the most successful awards show host, Billy Crystal, who has hosted the Oscar seven times. There were gleeful interactions with the plethora of A-listers in attendance from Lupita Nyong’o who won the Best
Actress Oscar for movie “12 Years a Slave” to Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi. (“Captain Phillips”).
There was also the star-studded selfie taken with Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong’o, and a photo-bombing Kevin Spacey, which became the most retweeted tweet in history.
The icing on the cake became the pizza she delivered to the audience, with stars like Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Scorsese, and a very pregnant Kerry Washington diving in. Later, she collected tips for the delivery guy in Pharrell’s gigantic Vivienne Westwood-designed hat from the likes of Pitt, John Travolta and Nyong’o who dug into her purse looking for change and instead tossed her lip-gloss into the collection pot.
“Ellen is talented, wonderfully spontaneous, and knows how to entertain a worldwide audience,” said Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO. “She’s a big fan of the Oscars; we’re huge fans of hers. It’s a perfect match.”
With song performances from Pharrell Williams who sang a rendition of “Happy” from the film “Despicable Me 2,” which saw the singer-producer dancing with Lupita Nyong’o, Meryl Streep, and Amy Adams in the crowd, other performances came from Idina Menzel, Karen O, Bono and U2 who rocked the house with the song for “Mandela.”
“12 Years A Slave” won Best Picture, Alfonso Cuaron got Best Director for “Gravity” and “Dallas Buyers Club’s” Matthew McConaughey and “Blue Jasmine‘s” Cate Blanchett took home the top Actor and Actress awards.
Overall, the 2014 Oscars was an engaging and entertaining event. DeGeneres did a great job and gave the evening the same easy-going vibe of her hit daytime talk show. Let’s hope she returns next year for she was certainly the Best Host in Oscar history.
