Aurelia Butler

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Al Pacino put a room full of Hollywood stars a little bit on edge to close out the 96th Academy Awards.Rather than listing all 10 nominees while presenting the best picture Oscar, or offering a conventional “And the Oscar goes to,” Pacino simply said “Here it comes” before slowly opening the envelope.“And my eyes see ‘Oppenheimer,’” Pacino said next, to tepid applause from an audience that seemed unsure whether that statement was the most important proclamation of the night.“Yes, yes,” Pacino, 83, said of the movie that was considered the favorite to win best picture and finished with a night-best seven awards.At that point, on came the music, and cheers rose from the crowd. The camera cut to Christopher Nolan, the film’s director, and Emma Thomas, one of its producers, as they stood up and made their way to the stage.Did Jimmy Kimmel see it coming? Just minutes earlier, Kimmel, the host of the ceremony, made a joke about needing to tear up the envelope that said Emma Stone had won best actress for “Poor Things,” an allusion to the epic “Moonlight”/“La La Land” best picture mix-up of 2017.After the ceremony, Bill Kramer, the chief executive of the academy, said he was pleased with Pacino’s performance. “Everything went beautifully,” Kramer said. “He was just having fun up there.”Nicole Sperling More

In one of the most anticipated and surely one of the most exuberant moments of Oscar night, Ryan Gosling took the stage to perform “I’m Just Ken,” the nominated song from “Barbie” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.Wearing a sparkling pink suit and a cowboy hat, Gosling started out in the audience serenading his “Barbie” co-star Margot Robbie, who couldn’t contain her giggles. He then took the stage surrounded by an army of besuited Ken dancers, including fellow movie Kens Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans. Mark Ronson joined him onstage but Slash of Guns N’ Roses did the true shredding, showing up midway through for a cameo. In a Ken-like demonstration of (minimal) strength he punched through a pink board with his hand, wearing a pink glove.” At one point, Gosling returned to the crowd leading a singalong that included Robbie, director Greta Gerwig, “Barbie” actress America Ferrera and Emma Stone. (Stone was not in “Barbie,” however, she sang with Gosling in “La La Land.”)On the red carpet, Ronson promised an “absolutely bananas spectacle” in an interview with E!, and he delivered on that promise, complete with cut outs of Barbie heads and a “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” aesthetic.“Doing any sort of live TV is nerve-racking, and then to do it in that room? There’s not many rooms that are more intimidating,” Simu Liu told The Times at the Governors Ball following the telecast. “Nerves were running high and there was such a moment of elation when we were done: ‘Yes!’ I think we pulled it off,” he said. In another life, Gosling might have gone the pop star route. He got his start on “The All New Mickey Mouse Club,” the revival of the classic Disney variety show, which also launched the careers of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. Before that, Gosling was a child dancer. His early routines, including one in which he wears “Hammer pants,” have received tens of millions of views online.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Former President Donald J. Trump couldn’t help himself. And Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t resist either. So the Oscars wound to a close on a political note.Kimmel used some of his final stage time as host to read, to millions of Americans watching at home, a post published on Truth Social by Trump. (And yes, he really did post it.)Drawing out his phone onstage, Kimmel decided to share what he called “a review.”“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars,” Kimmel said, reading part of Trump’s post, which included a disparaging nickname for the ABC host George Stephanopoulos.“His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be,” Kimmel continued. “Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous.”“Blah, blah, blah,” Kimmel said. “Make America great again.”After asking the audience, “See if you can guess which former president just posted that?” Kimmel offered one final jab, expressing surprise that Trump had stayed up to watch the telecast.“Isn’t it past your jail time?” he said. More

At the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, the red carpet showed not only its true color but also its reputation as a vehicle for elegant, over-the-top and even political fashion.Though there were bright moments — Cynthia Erivo’s dress was a “Wicked” shade of green, Taylor Zakhar Perez wore powder blue Prada — many of the gowns and tuxedos that graced the carpet were black. Some stars’ ensembles harked back to attire they wore at prior Oscars ceremonies. Marlee Matlin said that her shimmering lilac Rodarte gown nodded to the dress she wore when she won the best actress award in 1987, and Lupita Nyong’o went with a pale bluish-silver Armani dress inspired by the color of the gown she wore when she won the best supporting actress award in 2014.Sparkling brooches were among the most visible accessories on both men and women, as were tiny red pins calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Israel-Hamas war also influenced action off the carpet, with protests taking place as celebrities were arriving at the ceremony.Of all the fashion on display at the Oscars, these 19 looks stood out as doing the most.Billie Eilish: Most Young Old Hollywood!A power skirt suit.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesThe Gen Z singer, a songwriter for “Barbie,” dialed up the glamour with flowing hair, a houndstooth Chanel bag and a tweed skirt suit with an Artists4Ceasefire pin on the jacket.Lupita Nyong’o: Most Icy Cool!Shining like a diamond.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The in memoriam segment at the Academy Awards opened not with a Hollywood star, but with a clip of Aleksei A. Navalny from “Navalny,” the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader who died last month in a Russian prison.“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,” read a quote of Navalny’s on the screen.Taking a moment to recognize those in the film industry who have died since the previous Oscars ceremony, the telecast also paid tribute to stars such as Harry Belafonte, the barrier-breaking performer and activist, and Chita Rivera, the Broadway star who also appeared in films, as well as filmmakers such as Norman Jewison, the lauded director behind “In the Heat of the Night,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Moonstruck.”To accompany the tributes, the superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli sang “Time to Say Goodbye” — with a new orchestration by Hans Zimmer — alongside his son, Matteo Bocelli.Chita Rivera, the Broadway star who also appeared in films, was honored in the Oscars’ in memoriam segment.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesHere are some of figures the Academy honored:Alan Arkin, the acclaimed actor who won an Oscar for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine”Andre Braugher, a film, TV and theater actor who had roles in Spike Lee and Edward Zwick filmsMichael Gambon, the acclaimed Irish-born actor who played Albus Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” moviesWilliam Friedkin, director of the box office hits “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist”Bo Goldman, the admired Hollywood screenwriter who took home Oscars for his work on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Melvin and Howard”Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who turned to politics in her 50sPiper Laurie, a respected actress with three Oscar nominations, including for her role in “Carrie”Bill Lee, a jazz bassist and composer who scored the early films of his son Spike LeeRichard Lewis, the acerbic stand-up comic who became a regular in movies and TVRyan O’Neal, who became an instant movie star in the 1970 hit film “Love Story”Matthew Perry, the “Friends” star who had roles in movies such as “The Whole Nine Yards”Paul Reubens, the comic actor behind Pee-wee Herman who had scores of movie and TV creditsRichard Roundtree, one of the first Black action heroes who was catapulted to fame in the movie “Shaft”Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most prominent composers, who scored the films “The Last Emperor,” “The Sheltering Sky” and “The Revenant”Tina Turner, the pop sensation who appeared in films such as “Tommy” and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”Carl Weathers, a former pro linebacker, who played Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies More

Cillian Murphy won the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal in “Oppenheimer” of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the atomic bomb and was haunted by its impact.“For better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” Murphy said in his acceptance speech. “So I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”This is Murphy’s first Oscar win and his first nomination. He was a top contender at this year’s Academy Awards after winning a slew of other awards, including best actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, best leading actor at the BAFTA Film Awards and best actor in a drama at the Golden Globes.“It’s been the wildest, most exhilarating, most powerfully satisfying journey you’ve taken me on over the last 20 years,” he said, thanking “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas and director Christopher Nolan, who also won his first Oscar on Sunday night. “I owe you more than I can say.”The contest for best actor had developed into a two-way race between Murphy and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), who won best actor at the Critics Choice Awards and best actor in a musical or comedy film at the Golden Globes.Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) were also nominated in the category. More