The Oscars have always been a lightning rod for scandal, as Hollywood luminaries take the stage and reveal more of themselves than the viewers perhaps expected.
From Cuba Gooding Jr. shouting his speech to drown out the play-off music, to the political interventions of legends like Marlon Brando and Vanessa Redgrave, the awards show has always provided moments to keep fans chattering for weeks.
In 2022, the waning cultural relevance of the Oscars got a shot of adrenaline when nominee Will Smith flounced onstage and slapped host Chris Rock over a joke.
But some of the most astonishing fiascos at the Academy Awards were the result of honest mistakes, either by the stars or the people behind-the-scenes.
One winner tripped on her way to accept her prize, icons announced the wrong victors and one wild security lapse led to a naked man streaking across the stage.
Now the Daily Mail looks back on the biggest blunders in Oscars history….
Envelopegate, 2017
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty delivered a bungled presentation of the 2017 Oscar for best picture, mistakenly announcing La La Land as the winner
La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz is pictured having to halt his own acceptance speech in order to announce that there had been an error and Moonlight had won
The best picture announcement at the 2017 Oscars was meant to be a heartwarming tribute to Tinseltown legacy, with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway reuniting onstage 50 years after the release of their beloved film Bonnie & Clyde.
But the whole enterprise went pear-shaped when Beatty opened the envelope and spent several seconds staring at the page, confused.
‘You’re impossible!’ Dunaway laughed, ripping the slip of paper out of his hand and confidently announcing that the best picture winner was La La Land.
The La La Land team bounded onstage and barreled into their acceptance speeches, only to then realize – mortified – that there had been an error.
Beatty and Dunaway had accidentally been given the best actress page, which said that Emma Stone had won for La La Land.
In fact, the best picture winner was Moonlight, and the La La Land producers had to sheepishly hand over the prize to the real victors onstage.
Dunaway was heaped with opprobrium for announcing the wrong winner and humiliating the La La Land team in front of the world.
Two months later, she went on television and attempted to laugh off the incident, trying to apportion part of the blame to Beatty.
‘He pulled the card out of the envelope and he didn’t say anything,’ she told Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News. ‘I thought he was joking.’
She added: ‘I mean, I thought he was stalling. Warren’s like that. He kind of holds the power and makes people – a dramatic pause. But it’s part of his charm.’
Holt then inquired whether Dunaway had learned to laugh about the mishap, and she chuckled while responding: ‘Not really.’
The Original Envelopegate, 1964
Sammy Davis Jr., by then already a global superstar in the Rat Pack, fell victim to a similar envelope mishap more than half a century before Beatty and Dunaway
When Davis was supposed to present the prize for a musical adaptation, he was accidentally given the envelope for the original score
Sammy Davis Jr., by then already a global superstar in the Rat Pack, fell victim to a similar envelope mishap more than half a century before Beatty and Dunaway.
At that point, there were two different awards for best score, one for a soundtrack that was ‘adapted’ and one for music that was ‘substantially original.’
When Davis was supposed to present the prize for a musical adaptation, he was accidentally given the envelope for the original score.
As a result, he mistakenly read out John Addison as having won the adapted score prize for the 1963 period comedy Tom Jones, starring Albert Finney.
Some of the live audience started clapping anyway, possibly unaware of Davis’ error, while others looked at each other in apparent befuddlement.
After Previn’s speech, Davis came back to the lectern to present best original score, despite the fact he had already let slip that John Addison was the victor
An abashed Davis returned to the podium and won the audience back by saying: ‘They gave me the wrong envelope. Wait till the NAACP hears about this.’
The crowd burst into laughter and applause, and kept laughing when Davis put on his reading glasses and said: ‘I ain’t gonna make no mistake this time, baby.’
He successfully announced the real winner as Andre Previn for Irma La Douce, a comedy by Billy Wilder starring Jack Lemmon alongside Shirley MacLaine.
After Previn’s speech, Davis came back to the lectern to present best original score, despite the fact he had already let slip that John Addison was the victor.
As he read out the nominees, he got an inadvertent laugh on Addison’s name and joked to the audience: ‘Guess who the winner is.’
Jennifer Lawrence’s stumble, 2013
Jennifer Lawrence tripped over her Dior couture gown while taking the stage to accept her best actress Oscar in 2013 for the David O. Russell picture Silver Linings Playbook
She fell dramatically forward and buried her face in her hands, then gathered herself back up and made her way to the microphone to a standing ovation
When 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence won an Academy Award in 2013, she hit the summit of her stratospheric rise to stardom – but hit the floor first.
The previous year she had emerged as the leading lady of a smash hit Hollywood tentpole, The Hunger Games, and also cemented her position as a critical darling with her performance in Silver Linings Playbook.
Lawrence won best actress for Silver Linings Playbook and excitedly headed to the stage, the image of awards show chic in a massive Dior couture gown.
It was the frock, however, that proved to be her undoing, as she tripped over the hem while on her way up the stairs to the stage at the Dolby Theatre.
She fell dramatically forward and buried her face in her hands, then gathered herself back up and made her way to the microphone to a standing ovation.
‘Thank you,’ she said with a self-deprecating smile. ‘You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you.’
She then explained the incident to backstage reporters by indicating her voluminous gown and saying: ‘Look at my dress! I tried to walk upstairs in this dress. That’s what happened. I think I stepped on the fabric and they waxed the stairs.’
The Streaker, 1974
An astounding security failure at the 1974 Oscars enabled the infamous ‘streaker’ and gay rights activist Robert Opel to make his way onstage while David Niven was speaking
Niven soldiered through the rest of his introduction and Elizabeth Taylor then made her entrance, quipping: ‘That’s a pretty hard act to follow’
An astounding security failure at the 1974 Oscars enabled the infamous ‘streaker’ and gay rights activist Robert Opel to make his way onstage and run across it in the nude.
David Niven was in the middle of a speech introducing Elizabeth Taylor, who was meant to be doling out that year’s best picture prize to The Sting.
But as Niven began to hail ‘a very important contributor to world entertainment,’ Opel pranced up behind him naked, flashing a peace sign.
The audience shrieked with shock and hilarity, but Niven retained the suave unflappability that had made him a Hollywood emblem of English elegance.
‘Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen,’ he said with an air of gentle amusement. ‘But 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?’
Niven soldiered through the rest of his introduction and Elizabeth Taylor then made her entrance, quipping: ‘That’s a pretty hard act to follow.’
Adele Dazeem, 2014
John Travolta coined a phrase that has passed into Oscars history when he mangled Idina Menzel’s name by introducing her as ‘Adele Dazeem’
John Travolta coined a phrase that has passed into Oscars history when he mangled Idina Menzel’s name while introducing her.
Menzel had been a Broadway star for over a decade as the original Elphaba in Wicked, and was now along with Kristen Bell one of the two voice leads of the smash hit Disney movie Frozen, which remains an enduring favorite.
The movie’s most beloved song was Mendel’s power ballad Let It Go, which Travolta was bringing her onstage to sing for the Oscars audience.
‘Here to perform the Oscar-nominated, gorgeously empowering song Let It Go from the Oscar-winning animated movie Frozen, please welcome the wickedly talented, one and only…Adele Dazeem,’ said the Grease star.
Travolta’s flub became an instant meme as viewers delighted in the mistake, but he was embarrassed enough to issue a statement to CNN two days later.
The news outlet noted: ‘Ironically, the initial statement sent to CNN Tuesday was also somewhat distorted, containing sentence fragments and missing key phrases.’
In the end, the missive they ran from Travolta read: ‘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!’
Menzel took a good-natured view of the blunder, joining Travolta onstage at the following year’s Academy Awards and introducing him as ‘Glom Gazingo’
Menzel took a good-natured view of the blunder, joining Travolta onstage at the following year’s Academy Awards and introducing him as ‘Glom Gazingo,’ before they presented best original song to John Legend and Common’s Glory from Selma.
A decade later, Menzel said she was initially unhorsed by Travolta’s error but later came to regard the moment as a major professional boost.
‘I had a bunch of little tricks that I do when I feel like I need to focus, and that just pulled the rug out from under me,’ she told Vanity Fair.
‘But ultimately, it was one of the best things that’s happened in my career. I think that anyone that didn’t know me at the time was like, Who is this girl they’re all talking about? And all the people that knew me were up in arms and felt bad for me.’
She noted: ‘So a lot of love was sent my way, and a lot of people got to know who I was. And so actually, it was a great thing for me personally.’
To Be Frank, 1934
At the 1934 Oscars, two of the three best director nominees had the same first name – Frank Lloyd, pictured winning for Cavalcade, and Frank Capra, competing for Lady for a Day
At the 1934 Oscars, two of the three best director nominees had the same first name – Frank Lloyd, up for Cavalcade, and Frank Capra, competing for Lady for a Day.
However when host Will Rogers presented the prize at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, he said simply: ‘Come on up and get it, Frank!’
A delighted Capra sprang to his feet and dashed up to the stage only to then be confronted with the fact that it was, in fact, Lloyd who had won.
Capra had to make his way back to his table with his tail between his legs, an experience he recounted in excruciating detail decades later.
‘That walk back through applauding VIPs yelling: “Sit down! Down in front! Sit down!” as I obstructed their view was the longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life,’ he wrote in his memoir The Name Above the Title.
‘I wish I could have crawled under the rug like a miserable worm. When I slumped into my chair, I felt like one. All my friends at the table were crying.’
Involuntary Manslaughter, 2017
Costume designer Janet Patterson was honored at the In Memoriam reel at the 2017 Oscars, but the picture shown was of the still living producer Jan Chapman
One of the professionals honored during the In Memoriam segment of the 2017 Academy Awards was costume designer Janet Patterson.
Patterson, who hailed from Australia, worked on a string of films by her compatriot Jane Campion such as The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady and Bright Star.
Her credits included the 2015 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, directed by Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg and starring Carey Mulligan, Michael Sheen and Belgian heartthrob Matthias Schoenaerts.
However when Patterson’s name appeared onscreen at the Oscars In Memoriam reel, the photo next to it was not of her, but of Australian producer Jan Chapman.
Chapman, who had produced many films Patterson worked on, had to publicly clarify she was ‘alive and well,’ which she remains to this day aged 75.
‘I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson,’ Chapman told Variety.
‘I had urged her agency to check any photograph which might be used and understand that they were told that the Academy had it covered.’
She added pointedly: ‘Janet was a great beauty and four-time Oscar nominee and it is very disappointing that the error was not picked up.’
‘The first openly gay man’ to win an Oscar, 2016
Sam Smith, upon winning best original song for The Writing’s on the Wall from the James Bond film Spectre, went viral for a making a factual error onstage
Sam Smith, upon winning best original song for The Writing’s on the Wall from the James Bond film Spectre, went viral for a making a factual error onstage.
‘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,’ said Smith, accepting with co-writer Jimmy Napes.
‘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. I stand here, I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.’
Smith turned out to have apparently misremembered a quote from McKellen saying no openly gay man had earned the gong for best actor at the Academy Awards.
In fact a number of openly gay men had won Oscars before, including Elton John and Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, as well as producer Scott Rudin and the late lyricist Howard Ashman of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid fame.
Black issued a scathing retort to Smith on Twitter, writing: ‘Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé.’
‘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,’ said Smith, accepting with co-writer Jimmy Napes
He then added: ‘Here’s a start,’ and attached a clip of himself being presented with his Oscar for Milk by Tina Fey and Steve Martin in 2009.
‘I messed up,’ Smith confessed later to NME. ‘I actually meant to say Best Male Actor and I didn’t. I obviously did know that I wasn’t the first gay person to win an Oscar. I was gutted – there was 90 million people watching that show; I wanted to say something positive and I f**ked up.’
Smith added: ‘When I mucked that up, I lost a lot of confidence. I can’t express enough – it really upset me. It made me realize that what I say can be damaging.’
Incidentally, Smith no longer identifies as a gay man, having come out as nonbinary and declared a preference for ‘they/them’ pronouns in 2019.
The following year, the shoe was on the other foot when it was Elton John who was upbraided by fans for introducing Smith onstage as ‘he.’
Hello, Gorgeous, 1969
Barbra Streisand’s best actress win at the 1969 Oscars for her movie debut Funny Girl was a standout triumph for a variety of reasons – not all of them positive
Only when she saw the show on TV afterwards did she realize, aghast, that her outfit became almost entirely transparent under the stage lights
Streisand is pictured in her Arnold Scaasi trouser suit at the Oscars alongside Jack Albertson (left) and Anthony Harvey (right), both of whom also won awards that evening
Barbra Streisand’s best actress win at the 1969 Oscars for her movie debut Funny Girl was a standout triumph for a variety of reasons – not all of them positive.
She was part of the only tie in the history of the category, winning the award alongside Katharine Hepburn for the historical drama The Lion in Winter.
Hepburn had remained true to her well-known habit of skipping the Oscars, so Streisand took the stage alone and earned a huge laugh by quoting her tagline from Funny Girl, saying to the trophy: ‘Hello, gorgeous.’
At that point Streisand was already noted for her quirky dress sense, and for her big night at the Academy Awards she eschewed the standard couture gowns in favor of a black sequined trouser suit by Arnold Scaasi.
‘Gee,’ she reasoned to herself at the time: ‘I might be fortunate enough to win another Oscar someday, and that’s when I can be more elegant, but this time I should probably look more like the 26-year-old girl I am.’
Only when she saw the show on TV afterwards did she realize that her outfit became almost entirely transparent under the stage lights.
‘I was so embarrassed. And I’m still horrified, thinking about it now. The outfit was more talked about than the fact that I had won the Academy Award,’ she recalled.
‘When I called my mother the next day to ask what she thought of my Oscar, all she could say was: “What kind of dress was that to wear in public?” For once, she was right!’ Streisand wrote in her memoir My Name Is Barbra.
The Oscars Heist, 2000
Willie Fulgear (right) and his son Allen (left) are pictured holding the check presented to Fulgear for finding 52 of the 55 stolen Oscar trophies in a dumpster in 2001
One of the biggest mistakes in the history of the Oscars was – apparently – miraculously corrected before the ceremony made it to the airwaves.
On March 10, 2000, mere weeks before the awards show, 55 trophies were stolen from a Roadway Express loading dock in the Los Angeles suburbs.
The trophies’ manufacturer R.S. Owens swung into action, with about 20 employees working around the clock to churn out replacement statuettes.
However, in a stunning turn of events nine days after the theft, a 61-year-old unemployed junk scavenger called Willie Fulgear happened upon 52 of the trophies while dumpster diving behind a Food4Less in Koreatown.
Roadway Express awarded Fulgear $50,000 for recovering the lost items, he was invited to attend the Oscars and the robbers were eventually apprehended.
Several years later, though, bizarre details emerged about the shocking security lapse that had roiled the Academy Awards ahead of the ceremony.
R.S. Owens design director Joseph Petree revealed: ‘Most people don’t know that we always made the Oscars a year in advance. What got stolen was [the] next year’s statues,’ in a 2017 interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile the trophies Fulgear retrieved from the dumpster were destroyed, inasmuch as the Oscars ‘were never going to hand out a stolen statue,’ Petree said.