Degeneres Shines at Oscars

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Abby Almonte, Staff Writer

The 86th Academy Awards show that kicked-off the month of March had more to it than just presenting Oscars because of its many memorable moments.

Ellen Degeneres, stand-up comedian and host of her own show “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” was chosen to be this year’s Academy Awards host. Degeneres brought a lot of humor and jokes to the table.

Able to deliver hilarious one-liners, Degeneres began the show by poking fun at some audience members as she came down the center aisle. Degeneres displayed some humor when she handed out scratch-and-win lottery tickets to celebrity Bradley Cooper, who lucked out in being a nominee to Dallas Buyers Club’s Jared Leto.

Leto, also lead singer for the band Thirty Seconds to Mars, was up first to receive his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Leto then proceeded to give the first acceptance speech of the night, one that did not disappoint. He shared a brief history of his past before thanking his mother and telling her that he loves her.

Alongside of Leto was Matthew McConaughey, who took home the title for Best Actor. Dallas Buyers Club did not win the anticipated Best Picture, but instead it was director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave.

In Hollywood, the nominating and selecting for the Oscars are done by the writers, actors, directors, animators, art directors and executives. The only requirement is that each participant be a part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, or the AMPAS.

It came as almost a surprise when Leonardo DiCaprio’s name was not called.  Famous for many nominations in the past, fans of DiCaprio have joked that he is such a great actor, but has never won an Oscar in his many years as an actor.

The Oscar’s official website holds a poll that shows the most social mentions online during the award season, and it was DiCaprio who held the most, beating the next runner-up Jennifer Lawrence by 47,000 mentions.

Lawrence did have her moment to shine again, but this time it was on the red carpet where she accidentally fell, just as she did at last year’s award ceremony.

The humor continued when Degeneres paraded through the aisles with questions about ordering pizza, which she actually did. Degeneres brought out Edgar Martirosyan, owner of Los Angeles chain Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria, and they proceeded to hand out pizza slices to A-list celebrities.

After collecting a more than generous tip, Degeneres managed to gather a group of celebrities into one big selfie image in hope of it reaching high attention on Twitter. All of the online buzz caused Twitter’s database to temporarily malfunction.

Degeneres wasn’t the only one bringing in humor when John Travolta unintentionally messed up Idina Menzel’s name, causing a stir back home for viewers.

Travolta was able to correctly type her name, though, when he emailed this statement: “I’ve been beating myself up all day. Then I thought … what would Idina Menzel say. She’d say, ‘Let it go, let it go!’ Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy ‘Frozen’ took home two Oscars Sunday night!”