The 98th Academy Awards took place in Holly-weird last night, and it was indeed just as weird and woke as ever. I mean, they never disappoint, right? There actually were a few highlights to share, but I’ll begin with the lowlights.
The Lowlights
First up, Jimmy Kimmel, who was supposed to just get up there and present the award for Best Documentary but could not do so without getting some snipes in at First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump.
KIMMEL: As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS. Fortunately, [audience cheers] fortunately for all of us, there is an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk, to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action. And there are also documentaries where you went around the White House trying on shoes.
Okay, so he has to slam the first lady. Nice. By the way, her documentary has done very, very well. It’s pulled in tens of millions of dollars – way more than any documentary of its kind. And he is incapable of even complimenting the first lady or just staying away from her. He cannot help himself and got a big laugh from the audience who cannot stand the president or the first lady. It’s disgusting.
Then, the evening’s host, Conan O’Brien, decided to take a shot at the organization of our dead friend Charlie Kirk. From the stage of the Oscars, Conan thought it would be great to bring up the Turning Point USA Super Bowl halftime show, which was only offered because Bad Bunny had made so many anti-USA statements and was obviously the opposite of a patriot. That is why Turning Point felt the need to offer alternate programming for people like me who did not want to support him as he got out there, spoke only in Spanish, and talked about the America he loved, which involved all the countries in the Western Hemisphere. Here is that moment from Conan:
O’BRIEN: I should warn you tonight could get political, okay? And if that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock. It’s at the David & Busters down the street. A lot of tickets for that.
Okay, right, Turning Point doesn’t have the same money that the Hollywood crowd has, so they don’t have quite the glitz and the glamor for their alternate halftime show, though they put on an amazing show that actually set records. You would know that Conan, if you took one step out of your white privilege, woke, Hollywood bubble. Remember the ridiculous soundbite we showed you of Conan with Michelle Obama? Just in case you were thinking Conan is the more reasonable one, he is not. That’s Jay Leno, by the way.
The Highlights
There were a few people worth praising last night. Nicole Kidman gave an interview on the red carpet beforehand and was asked what she did during the day. She talked about how she went to church because it was Sunday, and the interviewer turned into a puddle with a little Wicked Witch of the West hat on top of it. I kid. But they are not used to hearing answers like that from big Hollywood stars, so good for Nicole Kidman.
Secondly, Jessie Buckley, who won Best Actress for her role in Hamnet, got up there and gave an acceptance speech that was amazing. Here is a bit of it:
BUCKLEY: You, Fred, I love you, man. I love you. You’re the most incredible dad. You’re my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you. I do. I do. And Aila, my little girl, who is eight months, who has absolutely no idea what’s going on and is probably dreaming of milk, but this is kind of a big deal. And I love you, and I love being your mom, and I can’t wait to discover life beside you. Chloe and Maggie. You. To get to know this incandescent woman and journey to understand of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life. It’s, um, it’s Mother’s Day in the U.K. today, so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.
Wow. You just don’t see that kind of thing at the Oscars. Getting up there and using her time to motherhood, talk about the joy of having a baby, talking about how much she loved her spouse and family – that was extraordinary. Good for her. She is Irish. I didn’t know about her prior to this and I haven’t seen that movie, but, my gosh, I love what she said.
Last but not least, I would be remiss not to mention Michael B. Jordan winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Sinners. This is some of what he had to say:
JORDAN: God is good. God is good. And um yeah mama, what’s up? Y’all know how I feel about my mother and my father’s here. Yo, pops, where you at? My dad, my dad came in from Ghana. He flew in from Ghana to be here. My brother, my sister is here, my family… Thank you, everybody in this room and everybody at home, for supporting me over my career. I feel it. I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me. So, thank you for keep, for keep betting on me.
Thanking his family, thanking God, shout out to his parents. Perfect. Spot on. Not too self-aggrandizing. All the right notes. So, good for him. I am not surprised, right? Michael B. has been great all along. I also love this new gal who I didn’t know about, Jessie Buckley.
Conan, Jimmy? Predictable.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,273 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.