Oscar Host Ellen DeGeneres did what anyone hosting the world’s
most famous awards show would do…she set out to be entertaining; and for the
most part she succeeded. But like many things in life, some of her antics had
unintended consequences.
Take for instance her jab at Liza Minnelli; she basically
said Minnelli looked like a man in drag. The line got a few laughs but
apparently put a few celebrities “On edge”. One celebrity in particular who felt
this way was John Travolta. It seems that as he made his way backstage to introduce
Idina Menzel he ran into DeGeneres who, taking one look at his “plastic” appearance
and bad dye job, jokingly called him “Liza”. The rest as they say is history.
Travolta, still reeling from the verbal punch to the ego promptly butchered Idina’s
name so badly (calling her what sounded like a late addition to the cast of
Homeland) that a new word for botching names was invented…Travoltified. Travolta who now appears to be destined for
infamy for all the wrong reasons was later seen chatting at an after party with
Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Don Cheadle and had this to say: “I admit, Alan
rattled me back there when she called me…well whatever she called me. But here’s
the thing, life goes on and I look around and see my good friends Bertle,
Garrington and Dorf and I know this too will pass.
Ellen’s pizza ordering stunt also has had a lasting impact. Sure
it was entertaining and nice to see that celebrities too can’t control
themselves when pizza arrives, ultimately scorching the insides of their mouths…just
like the rest of us (who still think they are in college). But with all the Oscar
fanfare, pizza prices have skyrocketed. While expensive pizza is a common
occurrence in California (A rumored dough tax is in the works), this is new to
other parts of the country such as Springfield, Illinois. Mary McMiddleson: “Who
knew celebrities ate pizza? Well now thanks to Ellen everyone does. That $5
anytime deal? It’s now $5.25. And now every driver actually expects a tip…”Thank
You” isn’t enough anymore. Well to that I say…Thanks Ellen…thanks for ruining pizza.”
Lastly, Ellen’s famous “selfie” did more than just crash
Twitter. Reports from Moscow say the “Incident” directly led to Vladimir Putin
sending troops into Crimea. Putin, already miffed because he was not
nominated for an academy award for the “Best
Dictator Acting like He is Running a Democracy” category, reportedly became
enraged that Ellen took credit for taking down Twitter. Putin, who according to
his Facebook profile is “Genetically speaking…Old Schools”, did not want a
woman appearing to be more powerful than him. Said Putin: “Showing me over in such
a giant TV audience on the celebrity screening was an act of war…a war between
the sexys”. He therefore invaded Crimea to show that he too could “Break
things”.
Some pundits thought Putin was upset because he was not in
the celebrity selfie but Adreaov
Kaustonia, an expert on Vladimir Putin (incidentally Putin appointed Kaustonia
to the post in 2013) explained that “His Majesty never takes selfies with anyone
but himself”. Putin who fancies himself quite “The man of theses ladies” later
was heard saying he thought his actions were “Sure to get me date with that Leslie
Travoltelli or at least I will host Oscar next year…”