Weekend News Roundup! Everything that Happened at the Oscars


Happy Monday! Here’s our compendium of pop culture news you may havemissed while you were doing more important things over the weekend.

• The Oscars happened. Birdman won most of the major awards (Best Director, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematograph). The slightly less exciting awards were split between Whiplash (Editing, Sound Mixing, Supporting Actor) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (Makeup, Costume Design, Original Score, Set Design). Boyhood didn’t do too well. You can see the full list of winners here.

• Common brought his mother and everyone (well, Chris Pine and David Oyelowo) cried when he performed “Glory” with John Legend. Melanie Griffith embarrassed her daughter Dakota Johnson. Pawel Pawlikowski got rushed off the stage while he tried to thank his deceased spouse; the winners of Documentary Short Subject got rushed off the stage while one of them was dedicating the Oscar to her son who committed suicide. Neil Patrick Harris responded to her call to “talk more about suicide” by making a disparaging comment about her outfit choice. Eddie Redmayne was so excited to win Best Actor. Sean Penn made a somewhat ill-advised immigration joke about Alejandro González Iñárritu. John Travolta gave everyone nightmares with his immense creepiness (Scientology: you have three billion dollars, get a better PR rep).  Joan Rivers was left out of the In Memoriam segment. Lady Gaga sang all the songs from the Sound of Music.

• Patricia Arquette used her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech to advocate for equal pay for equal work. John Legend and Common used their acceptance speech to call attention to the number of black man incarcerated in America today (way too many) and emphasize that “Selma is now.” The writer of The Imitation Game encouraged teenagers who felt out of place to stay different. 

• Fifty Shades of Grey won the box office again, because what else is there to watch. [BOM]

• Emma Watson is probably not dating Prince Harry. She has seen (and made us want to re-watch) The Little Princess though. [Twitter]

• If you desire a short break from shaking your head at everything to do with American politics, we recommend this John Oliver clip about the the Barbie Bus, the British Labour Party’s bright idea to appeal to adult women voters.  [YouTube]