He’s just Ken, performing at the Oscars he gave us a 10…
Ryan Gosling‘s live rendition of the comedy power ballad from Barbie was always going to be one of the viral moments of this year’s awards, but Ken exceeded all our expectations.
We’ll bring your our serious critique of his Oscars performance here – but it wasn’t the only big talking point of the night.
Of course, Oppenheimer was the big winner, with prizes for stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, as well as the best picture prize and best director for Christopher Nolan.
Oscars live: Follow updates as after-parties kick off
But in news that no one was expecting, we had Twins! (Yes, the Twins, capital T!). We had John Cena naked! We had Al Pacino causing confusion!
Here’s what everyone’s talking about after the 2024 Academy Awards.
Al Pacino’s slip-up
What is it about that pesky best picture envelope?
Okay, so it’s not every year, but 2024 is certainly not the first time that the path to announcing the best film has not run smoothly – remember envelope-gate with the La La Land and Moonlight mix-up in 2017?
This year, it was down to Al Pacino to announce the biggest prize of the night. However, the Oscars veteran caused a bit of confusion when he called out Oppenheimer’s name – without announcing the full list of 10 nominees first.
Now, we all knew Oppenheimer was going to win. Maybe Pacino felt the same and wanted to get on with it; there’s a Vanity Fair after party to get to, after all.
So it was a little rushed at the end, but worse things happen at the Oscars, right? At least no one was slapped this year.
Emma Stone’s big win – and wardrobe malfunction
She won her first best actress Oscar in 2017, for her performance in La La Land. Now, Emma Stone has picked up her second, for playing a woman given the brain of a baby in the surreal comedy Poor Things.
It means she joins just a handful of stars, including Meryl Streep and Jodie Foster, who have won second Oscars by the age of 35.
But as she walked on stage for her acceptance speech, Stone revealed she was battling a wardrobe malfunction.
“My dress is broken,” she told the audience, before quipping: “I think it happened during I’m Just Ken.”
After thanking her family, Stone saved her final thanks for “my daughter, who is going to be three in three days and who turned our whole lives technicolour. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl”.
Then, before exiting the stage, she pleaded: “Don’t look at the back of my dress.”
Battle of Barbenheimer
Barbie, a film about a children’s toy, and Oppenheimer, the story of the scientist who developed the atomic bomb – not two films you would typically put together, but you can’t argue with the power of the internet.
Ahead of the two films being released on the same day last year, the Barbenheimer phenomenon was born.
Barbie won the battle of the box office, but Oppenheimer has swept awards season – and the rivalry was resurrected by stars and acting nominees Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling on stage as they introduced a tribute to the stunt community.
British star Blunt, who played Robert Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, suggested there “wasn’t that much of a rivalry” – as it is Christopher Nolan’s epic that has hands-down stormed the 2024 awards season.
But Oppenheimer was “riding Barbie’s coat-tails all summer”, Gosling joked – hence “Barbenheimer” and not “Oppenbarbie”.
Barbie star Margot Robbie could be seen laughing in the audience as Blunt replied: “Thanks for Ken-splaining that to me, Mr “I need to paint my abs on to get nominated” – you don’t see Robert Downey doing that.”
Painted on abs? Ken would never.
Speaking of Ken…
The prize for best song went to another hit from the Barbie soundtrack, Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?, but it was Gosling who stole the show with his performance.
I’m Just Ken, live at the Oscars, started with the star serenading a giggling Margot Robbie and ended with a full-blown power ballad sing-along with the Barbie actress, co-star America Ferrera, and director Greta Gerwig.
Dressed in a bright pink rhinestone suit with pink leather gloves and stetson to match, Gosling brought the Kenergy, singing his heart out as he was joined by songwriter Mark Ronson on guitar – and then Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash for a killer solo.
Other actors including Ncuti Gatwa, Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir, who played different versions of Ken in the film, also joined the performance.
Bravo, Ken. Maybe your destiny is more than just to live and die a life of blonde fragility, after all.
John Cena presents Oscar naked
“Costumes, they are so important,” actor and wrestler John Cena told the Oscars audience, presenting the award for best costume in the buff.
The 46-year-old held the envelope over his middle as he went on stage, before host Jimmy Kimmel appeared to give him a piece of cloth to wrap around his body.
Cena’s nudity was a nod to the 50th anniversary of the previous “craziest moment” in Oscars’ history, when a naked man ran on stage, Kimmel said.
David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor when a streaker, later identified as US photographer and gallery owner Robert Opel, ran out from behind the stage – with the 1974 crowd responding with laughter and cheers.
“The male body is not a joke,” Cena told the crowd. He also disagreed with Kimmel that he “wrestled naked”, saying he was dressed in jorts, the jean shorts which he is known for performing in during WWE events.
The award went to the costume designer for Poor Things, which also won the prize for make-up and hairstyling.
Twins reunion
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, both stars of comedy films Twins and Junior, reunited to present Oscars in two award categories, visual effects and film editing.
Their unlikely pairing as twins in 1988 is the film they are best remembered together for, but the duo gave their on-stage reunion a surprise twist.
“Arnold and I are presenting together tonight for very obvious reasons,” DeVito said, before Schwarzenegger finished: “We both tried to kill Batman.”
Both have played Batman villains in their time – DeVito was The Penguin in Batman Returns in 1992, while Schwarzenegger was Mr Freeze in Batman & Robin in 1997.
The camera then panned to former Batman Michael Keaton, who signalled to the pair to bring it on as Schwarzenegger called him a “son of a bitch” and told him: “You have a lot of nerve to show you face around here.”
Best in show
Everyone knows the Oscars are as much about the fashion as they are the actual awards. Dressed in a big bowtie, Messi the dog certainly makes our best-dressed list.
Messi, who stars in Anatomy Of A Fall, got his own seat at the awards – and was pictured raising his paws during the ceremony.
“Even though he’s a dog, he may have given the performance of a year in Anatomy Of A Fall, host Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening monologue.
Messi has been the talk of the town among the stars who have had a chance to meet him.
In fact, such was the excitement made by the border collie made at the Oscar nominees luncheon a few weeks ago that some felt his presence gave the movie an unfair advantage while the voting window was open, a source told The Hollywood Reporter.
We’d vote him for best boy every time.
Oscars firsts
There were a few notable firsts at this year’s event, not least for British filmmaker Christopher Nolan – some 22 years after he was first nominated.
That nod in 2002 was for best original screenplay for Memento, followed by a place on the shortlist in the same category in 2011 for Inception, but on both occasions, he left empty-handed.
In 2018 he was nominated for best director for Dunkirk, but again walked away without an Oscar.
Now, thanks to his work on Oppenheimer, he has finally won his first Academy Award.
The film also makes Cillian Murphy the first Irish actor to be named best actor, and it is also a first win for his co-star Robert Downey Jr – who was first nominated in 1993 for Chaplin.
Nolan’s fellow British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer has also made history, with The Zone of Interest becoming the first UK production to win the Oscar for best international feature. The film, set in and around the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War, features dialogue that is mostly in German and Polish, which made it eligible for the award.
Another historic moment came when 20 Days In Mariupol was named best documentary feature, marking the first Oscar to be won by Ukraine.
But it was a night of bad luck for Oscars hopeful Diane Warren, who has now notched up a total of 15 nominations but no wins for best original song.
