Remembering the Oscars’ biggest controversies, scandals, and WTF moments (including some you may have forgotten over the years)

Maugham’s the word

Once upon a time, Academy voters could write in nominees. That practice started with Bette Davis turning in the then-performance of the century in 1934’s Of Human Bondage. Davis, who had fought for meatier roles to sink her teeth into, burned a hole in the screen as doomed cockney waitress Mildred in this otherwise meh adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s epic novel.

When she failed to nab an Oscar nomination, Hollywood went into a good old-fashioned uproar, forcing the hand of the Academy to allow write-in votes. Davis lost, but when write-in nominee Hal Mohr won for his cinematography in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the following year, the practice was discontinued forever. —Lester Fabian Brathwaite

That Oscar’s gone…with the wind?

Hattie McDaniel made history as the first Black Oscar winner for her lauded, but controversial (even at the time), performance as Mammy in 1939’s Gone With the Wind. Since the hotel where the Oscars were held had a strict “no Blacks” segregation policy, McDaniel was forced to sit at a separate table away from everyone else. McDaniel won a plaque instead of a trophy, as was the custom for all supporting acting winners until 1943.

When she died in 1952, McDaniel willed her Oscar to Howard University and after a mysterious, circuitous journey, it eventually got there…in 1961. But, a decade later, it went missing.

In 2023, the Academy announced it would replace the plaque — presenting it to the Howard University Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, where McDaniel had originally bequeathed her award. Her Oscar is still missing. Then again, after all that plaque has been through, it may not want to be found. —L.F.B.

A zero Chill campaign

Actors have been implementing questionable tactics when campaigning for an Oscar since Mary Pickford schmoozed her way to a win for Coquette, a performance that was widely panned, but as the Queen of Hollywood she had some sway. Chill Wills was no Mary Pickford, but he wanted that little 8.5-pound trophy just as badly.

Wills was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the John Wayne-directed The Alamo in 1961. A veteran actor and friend of Wayne, Wills hired a publicity agent to help him snag the gold. Not a bad idea in itself, but the agent was W.S. “Bow-Wow” Wojciechowicz. And Bow-Wow wagged Wills’ tail all over Hollywood, taking out one For Your Consideration ad in which every Academy member’s name appears, in alphabetical order, alongside a picture of Wills with the truly awful quote, “Win, lose or draw, you’re all my cousins and I love you all.”

Bow-Wow shoulda quit while he was behind, but the next FYC ad put Chill’s Oscar hopes on ice. The ad featured photos of everyone in the Alamo cast, surrounding good ole Chill, and pissed a lot of people off with this quote: “We of the Alamo cast are praying harder — than the real Texans prayed for their lives in the Alamo — for Chill Wills to win the Oscar as best supporting actor. Cousin Chill’s acting was great. Your Alamo cousins.” Talk about putting the “Wow” in Bow-Wow. Chill basically said, “Forget the Alamo. Remember me!” Wayne took out an ad of his own, distancing himself as much as possible from Wills’ thirst. And Spartacus‘ Peter Ustinov won Best Supporting Actor that year. —L.F.B.

Hepburn, Babs, and the Oscar tie

Katharine Hepburn won four Oscars, never bothered to show up even once to pick it up. It was no different in 1969, when Hepburn, nominated for The Lion in Winter, won her third Best Actress Oscar, and second consecutive award after 1968’s absentee win for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. But instead of presenter Ingrid Bergman accepting the Oscar on Hepburn’s behalf, she announced the winners as Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.

It was the first and last exact tie in an acting category — Fredric March had beaten Wallace Beery by one vote in 1932 but according to the rules at the time, that was close enough to a tie and they both received Oscars, to the chagrin of the sole other nominee, Alfred Lunt. With Hepburn being too cool for school, Babs and her sheer, sequined sailor pantsuit had the moment all to herself. And it was “gorgeous.” —L.F.B.

An Oscar he can refuse

Marlon Brando won his second Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather, but when his name was called at the 1973 ceremony, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather made her way to the stage and alerted the bewildered audience that Brando would not be accepting the award due to Hollywood’s depiction of Native Americans and in light of the protests at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Littlefeather was greeted with boos and ridicule from the audience, and she later claimed John Wayne had to be physically restrained from trying to remove her from the stage.

The Academy issued an apology to Littlefeather for her mistreatment at the ceremony in 2022, less than two months before she died at age 75. After her death, however, Littlefeather’s sister said she had been lying about her indigenous heritage, perhaps complicating an already complicated incident. —L.F.B.

Win, lose, or streak

America used to have a real big streaking problem, particularly in 1974, amid the height of the sexual revolution and an apparent dearth in security guards. Enter Robert Opel, running, naked as the day he was born, on stage at the ’74 Oscars, with unflappable host David Niven remarking, “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?”

Opel’s shortcomings might have actually been planned, along with Niven’s remark, which would explain how a naked man snuck backstage at one of the most heavily guarded events of any given year. Opel’s story was told in 2011 by his nephew in the doc Uncle Bob, which revealed him to be a performance artist and gay rights activist who was fatally shot in 1979. —L.F.B.

The longest 11 minutes in history

If you think awards show opening musical numbers are bad now — Angela Bassett and the thing she did notwithstanding — strap in. It’s 1989, Rob Lowe looks the same. There’s no host (a move the Oscars has revisited time and again), and to fill time because the Oscars never go on long enough, Grease producer Allan Carr devised a couple of musical numbers.

The worst, among a smorgasbord of awful, featured Lowe alongside poor, never-gonna-work-in-this-town again newcomer Eileen Bowman as Snow White, Merv Griffin, and a destructive rendition of “Proud Mary” that went on for ELEVEN MINUTES. At the end of it all, Lily Tomlin strolled out and the Oscars, sadly, had just begun. —L.F.B.

Tomei?! No way!

Let’s just be clear: This writer believes Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny is one of the great comedic performances in cinematic history and it’s aged like a fine wine. Tomei’s Best Supporting Actress win, however, came as a surprise and a rumor persisted for years that it was actually a mistake. Because the Oscars hate comedy.

And also because a year after her win, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story citing a rumor that Tomei had been awarded the trophy by confused presenter Jack Palance, and in 1997, film critic Rex Reed picked up the rumor, claiming Palance was drunk or stoned when he announced Tomei over the heavily favored Vanessa Redgrave in Howards End.

Of course, those accountants from Price Waterhouse Coopers are always stationed in the wings (since 1953) in case the wrong winner is named, as we’ll soon see. Tomei, understandably, found the rumors hurtful, but she would have the last laugh, earning two more Oscar nominations for 2001’s. In the Bedroom and 2008’s The Wrestler. Mona Lisa would be proud. —L.F.B.

There’s kissing cousins and then there’s this…

Angelina Jolie used to be wild, kids. Sure, these days she’s better known as a mother, reclusive star, and humanitarian, but during her ’90s ascent to movie stardom, we were having fun. The Hackers/Gia/Girl, Interrupted Jolie was at the Golden Globes jumping into a pool with her gown still on. She was wearing Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck. With her turn in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, Jolie would win her first Oscar and go on to star in Tomb Raider, and the rest is herstory.

When she won her Best Supporting Actress trophy, Jolie thanked her brother James Haven, saying she was “so in love” with him. After the ceremony, she demonstrated that love with a brief kiss on the lips, which went the 2000 version of viral. Jolie denied the kiss was anything other than “brotherly love”; meanwhile, she and Haven remain close. In 2013, Jolie won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar as a woman no one would dare interrupt. —L.F.B.

Blame LSD!

There was a lot happening at the 2000 Oscars. Aside from Angelina Jolie being in love with her brother, we had South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone high on LSD on the red carpet, wearing derelict copies of Jennifer Lopez’s instantly iconic plunging Versace Grammys dress and Gwyneth Paltrow’s pale pink Ralph Lauren Oscars dress. Parker was nominated, along with Marc Shaiman, for “Blame Canada” from the South Park movie, Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Parker brought Stone as his date, they dropped acid, and hit the busiest red carpet in human existence.

Before that awful decision, they decided they would not address their dresses…at all. Instead, when asked about them, they would simply say, “It’s a magical night tonight.” Some of the other Oscar nominees didn’t take the duo’s flippant attitude too well, but, like, it’s the dudes from South Park. What were they expecting, reverence? The very idea of going to the Oscars on acid sounds terrifying AF, but so does coming off acid in the middle of the Oscars, which also happened to Parker and Stone. What’s worse, for Parker at least, was losing to personal nemesis Phil Collins. —L.F.B.

Keep that Pianist in your pants, Brody

There were a few brow-raising moments at the 2003 Oscar, and nearly all of them had to do with The Pianist. Gingerly side-stepping the fact that Roman Polanski won Best Director for the film but could not attend the ceremony since he’d been in self-imposed exile from America since being accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in 1978…what the film’s star, Adrien Brody, did after winning the Best Actor Oscar seems less shocking. But then again, you weren’t Halle Berry.

Brody became the youngest Best Actor winner at 29 and, swept up in the moment, grabbed presenter Berry (who had won Best Actress the year before), and planted a big kiss on her lips. In a 2017 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Berry revealed what was going on in her head at the moment, namely, “What the f— is happening right now?” But having been swept up in the moment, Berry knew “the feeling of being out of your body” and “just f—ing went with it.” —L.F.B.

How many people let this happen?

In 2012, national treasure Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars for the ninth time and it went smoothly, for the most part. Except the Blackface. Billy Crystal popularized his Sammy Davis Jr. impersonation in the ’80s on Saturday Night Live. It was a different time, as they say, but 2012 was not that long ago.

So, Crystal does his famous bit where he walks through the nominated pictures via CGI, and he dusts off Sammy for a Midnight in Paris bit with Justin Bieber. The criticism was swift, but perhaps comedian Paul Scheer said it best when Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress for The Help later in the ceremony. “Octavia Spencer’s win shows just how far we’ve come since Billy Crystal performed in Blackface.” —L.F.B.

Alone, yet…no, just alone

The name Bruce Broughton will long live in Academy Awards infamy. In 2014, Broughton was nominated for Best Original Song for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” from the film of the same name — a $7 million “Christian captivity narrative historical drama” that didn’t even clear a million at the box office, but somehow managed to score an Oscar nod. Huh.

Turns out Broughton, a former Academy governor, had, as an executive committee member of the Academy’s music branch, made improper contact with other branch members about his unfortunately titled song. Broughton told EW he simply “wrote some people and said, ‘Could you just take a look.’ That was literally the extent of the campaigning.” But the Academy decided it was less innocent than that and revoked Broughton’s nomination, a move it’s made only a handful of times before. Christian captivity narrative historical dramas have never been the same. —L.F.B.

And the Twitter goes to…

Billy Crystal’s Blackface wasn’t the end of the Oscars’ race problem: In 2015, all acting nominations went to white actors and Twitter (now X) user April Reign coined the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. In truth, the Oscars have always been so white, even when it came to parts for non-white actors. Luise Rainer, a white woman, (in)famously won Best Actress in 1938 for The Good Earth for playing a Chinese farmer. And it took 74 years for Halle Berry to become the first Black woman to win Best Actress — and she’s still the only one.

But the hashtag brought renewed attention to the Oscars’ long history of exclusion, eventually provoking the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to diversify its membership. Michelle Yeoh made history in 2023 as the first Asian actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress. Take that, ghost of Luise Rainer! —L.F.B.

Bonnie and Clyde strike again

Everyone just leave Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty alone. Between them they’ve given us some of the greatest cinema of the 20th century, very much including Mommie Dearest. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of their landmark film Bonnie and Clyde, the Academy invited Beatty and Dunaway to announce the Best Picture winner. Along the way, someone messed up and gave the acting legends the wrong envelope, for Best Actress, which had gone to Emma Stone for La La Land. A confused Beatty showed Dunaway, who, being Faye Dunaway, just ran with it, announcing La La Land as the Best Picture winner.

We were well into some heartfelt acceptance speeches when those Price Waterhouse Coopers folks stormed the stage, leading to La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz dropping a bomb on the ceremony: “There’s been a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke.” It wasn’t, but if you noticed a bemused Ryan Gosling watching it all unfold from the side of the stage, you’d be excused for thinking it was. Until the 2022 ceremony, this was easily the most WTF moment at the Oscars. But then… —L.F.B.

Between a Rock and a bad joke

Will Smith was poised to have the greatest moment of his acting career. With his third Best Actor nomination, for King Richard, the erstwhile Fresh Prince was heavily favored to win. But then the West Philadelphian (born and raised) walked up to the stage and slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a dusty G.I. Jane joke about Smith’s wife, Jada, who had recently gone public with her battle with alopecia. Smith won that night. And lost. In a big way. The slap and his “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth!” exclamation quickly became the most talked-about moment of 2022.

And we’re still talking about it. Rock debuted a stand-up special in March 2023, a year after the incident, in which he went in on the Smiths; Will Smith, banned from the ceremony for 10 years, went on an apology tour, and kinda made light of it; and 2023 host Jimmy Kimmel promised an unslappable show. The Oscars are often boring and predictable and even take themselves a little too seriously — while they need a jolt of energy, the slap wasn’t the way anyone wanted to see the ceremony’s spotlight shine brighter. It’ll be interesting to see how this will all play out in 2032 once Smith’s ban is over — barring any other incidents, of course. —L.F.B.

Who Leslie?

Andrea Riseborough found herself at the center of controversy after her surprise nomination for To Leslie, a little-seen film that benefited from a celeb-heavy grassroots advocacy campaign on social media and at small events around Hollywood. It’s like if Of Human Bondage had a #JusticeForBette hashtag. While Riseborough earned raves as a Texas woman who won the lottery years ago only to squander her winnings and struggle with alcoholism, barely anyone saw the film.

Then, some prominent Academy-friendly names came to Riseborough’s side, championing her performance: Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, and Jane Fonda among them. The Academy launched an investigation into the campaign, and though Riseborough didn’t get Broughton’d, they concluded the social media campaign’s tactics “caused concern.”

Meanwhile, Riseborough’s nomination over Black actresses Viola Davis (The Woman King) and Danielle Deadwyler (Till) revived the #OscarsSoWhite debate, as there were no Black actors nominated in the lead categories despite ample powerful performances that season. “The film industry is abhorrently unequal in terms of opportunity,” Riseborough told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m mindful not to speak for the experience of other people because they are better placed to speak, and I want to listen.” —L.F.B.

Animation isn’t just for kids

As many working in the industry will tell you, animation is cinema. It’s not just an easy distraction for your kids, despite what certain Oscar presenters may suggest. Certain comments made at the 2022 Oscars by Halle Bailey, Lily James, and Naomi Scott — presenters of the Best Animated Feature category, and all stars of live-action versions of animated Disney classics — rankled some animators in particular. “Animated films make up some of our most formative movie experiences as kids,” Bailey started. Fair enough, but then James added, “So many kids watch these movies over and over,” to which Bailey comically added several more “over”s. Then Scott quipped, “I see some parents out there know exactly what we’re talking about.”

With the writers behind the Oscars responsible for this presenter banter, some in the animation industry took offense to the Academy’s messaging that animation is only kids’ stuff. “Super cool to position animation as something that kids watch and adults have to endure,” wrote Phil Lord on Twitter, who won an Oscar for 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; he and collaborator Christopher Miller penned a response to the presentation in Variety shortly after.

The disrespect continued at the 2024 ceremony when host Jimmy Kimmel joked, “Please raise your hand if you let your kid fill out this part of the ballot.” It’s hard to reconcile these kinds of dismissive statements when we’ve had films like Anomalisa (2015), The Breadwinner (2017), Flee (2021), The Boy and the Heron (2023), and Memoir of a Snail (2024), all of which contain mature themes, nominated for Best Animated Feature. —Kevin Jacobsen

Karla Sofía Gascón makes history…then loses all goodwill

In 2025, Jacques Audiard’s genre-bending crime musical Emilia Pérez earned a whopping 13 Oscar nominations, the most for a non-English-language film in Academy history. Its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Oscar — and in the lead actress category, at that. Despite the film’s divisive reception online, this kind of acknowledgment showed that it had far more lovers than haters in the industry.

Much of that goodwill disappeared mere weeks after the nominations when enterprising X users dug up some of Gascón’s old tweets which revealed a pattern of bigoted viewpoints, with disparaging comments about Islam among the most egregious. After various trades started reporting on the posts, Gascón issued a series of statements over multiple days, asserting she was not a racist, apologizing to those who felt offended, and referencing cancel culture.

Gascón deactivated her X account and did not attend various planned awards events in the weeks that followed including Oscar precursors such as the Critics Choice Awards and BAFTA Awards. Netflix, which distributed Emilia Pérez, distanced themselves from the star amid the controversy, according to Variety, which also reported that some Academy members felt hesitant to vote for the film amid its storm of negative buzz. —K.J.