The Oscars are Hollywood's biggest night.
The hours-long show is broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world, with a massive
crew and stars working to present an entertaining evening.
But when things can go wrong, they generally do.
These are the most disastrous Oscar moments ever.
Sam Smith slips up
Shortly after taking home a Grammy Award for best new artist, Sam Smith received another
prize historically offered up to newly minted stars: Smith got to do a James Bond movie
theme song.
He both co-wrote and performed "Writing's on the Wall" from the 2015 film Spectre, and
it won Smith the Academy Award for best original song.
Alongside songwriting partner Jimmy Napes, an elated Smith took the stage at the Oscars
to give his acceptance speech.
He said:
"I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen, and he said that no openly gay
man had ever won an Oscar, and if this is the case - even if it isn't the case - I want
to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world..."
As rousing a message that is, it's not remotely accurate.
The McKellen article Smith referenced was specifically about how no openly gay man had
ever won the Oscar for best actor.
Then The New York Times proved Smith was wrong by publishing a list of the many LGBTQ+ individuals
who had won an Academy Award before, from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to previous
best song winner Elton John.
Oops.
Best picture, worst mistake
The craziest thing happened at the 2017 Academy Awards, when the honor of presenting best
picture fell to Hollywood legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
After the nominees were announced, Beatty opened the envelope and read the words inside,
but seemed perplexed.
Dunaway took the envelope and read the first printed words she saw: "La La Land."
The movie's producers triumphantly took the stage, while a lot of rushing around and chaos
went on behind them.
La La Land's Jordan Horowitz took the mic, and said:
"There's a mistake.
Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture."
Only after the debacle was it made clear how such a huge error happened.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, one of the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants gave
Beatty the previously opened best actress envelope, which read, "Emma Stone, La La Land."
Dunaway saw the name of the movie and ran with it.
Adele who?
In many ways, John Travolta is an ideal Academy Award presenter, particularly when it comes
to presenting the award for best original song.
A two-time nominee for best actor in the music-heavy films Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction,
he's probably better known for singing and dancing his way through Grease and Hairspray.
But while music came easy for Travolta, speaking words regularly did not at the 2014 Oscars
ceremony.
All he had to do was read a speech off the teleprompter and give the stage to Idina Menzel
so she could sing "Let It Go" from Frozen.
The speech was a little much, with Travolta giving praise to both the "gorgeously empowering"
tune and its "wickedly talented" singer.
But then, at the very end, when Travolta was just supposed to say "Idina Menzel" and get
out of the way, he instead bafflingly mispronounced her name as "Adele Dazeem".
On an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! a year later, Travolta blamed the gaffe on a distracting
backstage encounter with Goldie Hawn, followed by a last-minute change to the script that
simply proved too puzzling:
"They said, 'Oh by the way, we've changed Idina's name to phonetic spelling.'
'What do you mean?'
'Go!'"
Rob Lowe blew it
The 1989 Oscars broadcast opened with, as it often had, a big musical number, but it
didn't exactly go smoothly.
First, the Disney representation of Snow White, portrayed by an unknown actress named Eileen
Bowman, ran up to celebs sitting in their seats while squeakily singing her way through
a movie-themed parody of "I Only Have Eyes for You."
Then Merv Griffin showed up to sing his 1950 novelty hit, "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,"
in a fake nightclub scene while a bunch of old movie stars looked on.
Nearby, Bowman danced wildly, until Griffin stopped her to let her know her date had arrived
- Brat Pack hunk Rob Lowe, for some reason.
Together, they sang another song parody, this time of "Proud Mary."
And those are just the highlights of a bombastic sequence that went on for 11 minutes.
How bad was it?
Bowman quit acting and literally left Hollywood the next day, while producer Allan Carr dropped
out of the movie industry for a decade.
Oh, brother
Angelina Jolie was the talk of the 2000 Academy Awards when she won a best supporting actress
award for her breakout role in Girl Interrupted.
Unfortunately, what's better remembered is how she pawed at and slobbered all over her
brother James Haven both before and throughout the show.
Her speech didn't make things better.
"I'm in shock and I'm so in love with my brother right now.
He just held me and said he loved me and I know he's so happy for me, and thank you for
that...
Jamie, I have nothing without you.
You are the strongest, most amazing man I've ever known, I love you."
That's all a little much, but it's more than the non-acknowledgement Hilary Swank gave
to her husband, Chad Lowe, when she won an Oscar later that night.
Hey, that's not Marlon Brando
A critical and commercial smash, The Godfather also represented a comeback vehicle for former
screen idol Marlon Brando.
The epic 1972 crime family saga was a favorite to take home some, if not all, of the many
Academy Award nominations it received, particularly a best actor statuette for Brando.
But when presenter Liv Ullmann read his name, Brando didn't take the stage - a young woman
named Sacheen Littlefeather, president of the National Native American Affirmative Image
Committee, did.
Littlefeather was active in the American Indian Movement which found an ally in Brando.
The actor sent Littlefeather to decline his award as a protest against the treatment of
American Indians today by the film industry.
While Littlefeather received some cheers, some members of the Academy responded to the
protest with some unnecessarily catty remarks.
When presenting best actress, Raquel Welch quipped:
"I hope they haven't got a cause."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your favorite Oscar moments are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.