11 Things Not to Do at the Oscars

From Adele Dazeem to songs about boobs, lessons this year’s 87th Annual Academy Awards should learn from
By Brooke Showell
Updated August 26, 2015 12:16 AM

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REALLY BOTCHING SOMEONE'S NAME

Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage(2); Kevin Mazur

John Travolta’s had lots of lines to remember over the years (“Why it’s greased lightning!” “Will you just watch the hair?”). But for some reason he couldn’t quite get the hang of 2014 “Let It Go” performer Idina Menzel’s name, introducing her as “Adele Dazeem.” The Internet went wild with memes, Travolta-fy your name generators, parody Twitter accounts and questions of, “Really, John? That song is everywhere.” Note to self: When speaking in front of 43 million viewers, practice makes perfect.

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PERFORMING A SEXIST SONG

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Host Seth MacFarlane’s disastrous “We Saw Your Boobs” number in 2013 falls somewhere between distasteful and chauvinistic, as he calls out A-list actresses for their on-screen nudity. Well, that’s one way to go from Oscar emcee to public enemy No. 1 overnight.

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DISNEY MUSICAL NUMBERS

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Disney characters are among the most beloved, but when you pair Snow White with a 25-year-old Rob Lowe to sing “Proud Mary” at the Oscars, you enter the Twilight Zone. That 1989 opening number left the audience bewildered and prompted a public apology to the Walt Disney Company. Looking back, Lowe told PEOPLE he knew things were bad when he saw director Barry Levinson in the audience: “Literally, his mouth was forming the words, ‘What the hell is he doing?’”

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THANKING EVERYONE

Credit: Gary Hershorn

Which is longer, Erin Brockovich, or acceptance speech for her 2001 Best Actress win? When the actress says, “I’m going to spend some time here to tell you some things,” she wasn’t kidding. The Pretty Woman clocked in at four minutes to thank “everyone I’ve ever met in my life.”

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CLASHING COHOSTS

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One overexcited host () plus one host who could care less () equals cohosts who have zero chemistry. “People said I was under the influence,” Franco later told David Letterman about his widely panned performance, adding about his cohost, “I love her, but … I think the Tasmanian Devil would look stoned standing next to Anne Hathaway.”

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DROPPING AN F-BOMB

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Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) was certainly shocked when she won in 2011. Musing about previous winner , Leo blurts out, “When I watched Kate two years ago it looked so f—ing easy.” Good thing the censors caught it!

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TWO DIVAS, ONE STAGE

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And I am telling you it was a battle of the divas when and took the Shrine Auditorium stage to sing a medley with their Dreamgirls cast in 2007. Knowles and Hudson used the reunion to continuously one-up each other’s growls, riffs, runs and trills, leading viewers wondering if they were watching the Oscars or American Idol.

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OPRAH AS A PUNCHLINE

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It will never make his Top 10 list: In 1995, host David Letterman introduced attendees and Uma Thurman with the quip, “Oprah, Uma. Uma, Oprah.” Unfortunately, the play on words fell flat – and so did the rest of Letterman’s hosting gig.

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OUT OF THIS WORLD EGO

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1998 was the year for Titanic – and James Cameron will never let you forget that. Upon accepting the Best Director Oscar, Cameron did his best Jack Dawson, proclaiming, “I’m king of the world!”

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NO SENSE OF HUMOR

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During his monologue, 2005 emcee Chris Rock advised filmmakers to hire bigger names instead of rushing bad movies into theaters. “You want Tom Cruise and all you get is Jude Law. Wait,” he jokes. Almost everyone laughed, well except presenter Sean Penn, who sternly defended Law as “one of our finest actors” when he later took the stage.

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SENDING A PROXY

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Imagine not even wanting your Oscar! Marlon Brando showed who’s really the don when he turned down his Best Actor win for The Godfather in 1973. In his place, Brando sent young actress Sacheen Littlefeather to accept his Academy Award to protest the treatment of Native Americans in film and TV.

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By Brooke Showell