Oscars 2011: Most Awkward Moments of the Night

This year’s Academy Awards, celebrating a year of excellence in cinematography, were undeniably the worst show in Oscars history, critics say, labeling it a true “stinker” regardless of the good quality films included in it.

While most agree that the broadcast kicked off on a very promising note with hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco going all “Inception” in Alec Baldwin’s dreams (who hosted the awards last year), after that, it all went downhill.

As we also noted earlier today, summing ongoing reports, the show started off as promising and certainly seemed to have all the ingredients to be a hit with audiences at home.

However, from the first minute, it became painfully obvious that this would not go far by means of being funny or entertaining, The Hollywood Reporter points out.

After the aforementioned pre-taped video, Anne and James took to the stage for the opening monolog, a long and painful exchange of lines that was as fake as it was lame.

This was just one of the many awkward moments of the night and, in case you didn’t see last night’s ceremony, below is the video of this segment.

Alas, this didn’t stop here: Anne and James continued to try to get people laughing when all they were working with seemed to be recycled material from years ago.

As if that wasn’t enough, Franco appeared to be anywhere but there, even prompting talk that he’d gotten high before the awards ceremony.

Then, just as painful, there was the exchange between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, THR says. Again, this was only the beginning.

At one point in the evening, before the announcement of Best Original Score winner, various performers took to the stage to sing live the songs nominated.

Among them was actress Gwyneth Paltrow, whom Jennifer Hudson introduced as “country music’s newest star.” Paltrow’s performance was anything but stellar, according to many critics.

“The best picture nominees montage was scored to The King’s Speech, while the first video shown at the telecast – before Hathaway and Franco’s Oscar video into Alec Baldwin’s mind – of all 10 films led with The Social Network and ended on Inception. (The score from Network played during the first video.) Inception (four wins), The King’s Speech (four wins) and The Social Network (three wins) were the top three films of the night,” THR points out.

Another awkward moment was when the presenter messed up Reese Witherspoon name, herself an Oscar winner in a previous edition.

For more awkward moments of the night, see the piece in THR here or a similar one in Gawker here.