John Travolta kisses Scarlett Johansson
He’s got chills and they’re multiplying, only he’s middle-aged now and it looks weird. John Travolta went viral and then some back in 2015 after he approached Scarlett Johansson from behind on the Oscars red carpet to plant a kiss on her neck. The actress’ blank stare into the horizon said it all.
Stella McCartney almost rips Rihanna’s dress
Who’s that chick whose heel is about to rip up Rihanna’s dress? It’s only OG nepo baby Stella McCartney at the 2014 Met Gala in New York. The fashion designer was papped on the cusp of a major wardrobe assault. Luckily, no cloth was harmed and the Umbrella singer and fashion mogul lived to tell the tale.
Sacha Baron Cohen spills “ashes” on Ryan Seacrest
At the 2012 Oscars, Sacha Baron Cohen turned up on the red carpet dressed as his character from The Dictator, accompanied by two female bodyguards and holding an urn of fake ashes. Entertainment Tonight host Ryan Seacrest definitely wasn’t expecting him to spill the urn all over him and his Burberry tux. Oops!
Man tries to hoover Jason Segel
After Sacha Baron Cohen not-so-accidentally spilt the prop ashes over Ryan Seacrest during their red carpet interview, a member of staff came out wielding a hoover and was so focused on cleaning that he didn’t even notice Jason Segel. The How I Met Your Mother star was pictured dodging the brunt of the deadly machine.
Fan clings to Bradley Cooper
Outside of that grouchy New York Times profile, Bradley Cooper is known to be a good sport, and he reacted to this fan’s ambush at the 2014 SAG Awards better than some of his contemporaries would’ve. The American Sniper actor simply laughed off the moment until security pried the man, notable Ukrainian prankster Vitalii Sediuk, from his legs.
Selena Gomez not being like the other girls
In a 2007 interview that has since become a historical document among Selena Gomez fans, the then-actress announced she had instinctively gotten blue highlights in her hair for the event. “I like a little edge, a little pop in my hair, so I wanted to add something different, especially for the Teen Vogue party!” Gomez later poked fun at the interview on her TikTok in 2021.
Amy Schumer face-plants
Quirkster Amy Schumer thought it’d be funny to demystify the red carpet appearance of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West at the Time 100 Gala back in 2015 by tripping up in front of them. “I saw Kim and Kanye standing there, just owning it, just being short and important,” she told Graham Norton. “And I think falling is the funniest thing, so I took a dive in front of them.”
Mayim Bialik snaps back at reporter
At the 2014 SAG Awards, Mayim Bialik was asked: “Being on the Big Bang Theory, how many people - not that you aren’t a genius - think that you can solve calculus at the drop of a hat?” Bialik replied, “I was trained in calculus for several years. I’m a neuroscientist, you may not have known that?” The reporter recovered but looked like she wished a black hole could swallow her up right there.
Fan cuffs herself to Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant doesn’t like a lot of things, and red carpets are one of them. At the 2007 premiere of Music and Lyrics, a Dutch prank TV show host handcuffed herself to the actor and told him she didn’t have the key. The pair had to wait for police and fire rescue to arrive and set Hugh free. The woman spent two hours in jail for her efforts.
Björk and the bird dress
Björk was never going to turn up to a fancy event like the Oscars wearing some sombre and drab number. Instead, she turned up in a bird dress with six ostrich eggs. “I was dropping them carefully on the red carpet,” she later said about the 2001 event. “But other people’s bodyguards kept picking them up and saying in their thick American accents, ‘Scuse me, ma’am, you dropped this.”
Gary Busey kisses Jennifer Garner’s neck
The last face you’d ever want to see hurtling towards you is Garey Busey’s. At the 2008 Oscars, Ryan Seacrest asked Busey, who had just crashed the interview, if he knew who Jennifer Garner was. Busey then abruptly kissed Garner’s neck. She later joked, “Aren’t you going to ask me about getting kissed on the neck on the red carpet by this man? Um, that was nice.”
Reese Witherspoon and Felicity Jones shake wrists
There can’t be more than two people on this planet who shake people’s wrists instead of their hands. However, the two outliers just so happened to be in the same exact place at the same exact time. Reese Witherspoon and Felicity Jones, kindred spirits in the greeting sphere, met at the 2015 Oscars and were pictured doing… this.
Issa Rae is asked what she’d call her memoir
At the 2018 Golden Globes, E!’s Giuliana Rancic got herself in a spot of bother after asking Issa Rae what she’d called her memoir. The thing is, Rae already has a memoir, and she called it The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl. It was published in 2015, a whole three years before this mishap.
Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox acting random
Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly weren’t like other couples or, at least, that’s what they wanted everyone to think. Forget holding hands, they licked each other’s tongues, right there on the red carpet! In case anyone didn’t know, they didn’t play by the rulebook while together. Oh no. Not Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly. They were out of control!
Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain’s extreme tension
In 2021, a video of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain went viral for its intense sexual chemistry. The acting pair could be seen caressing each other, kissing arms, and sharing loving looks. This was clearly a couple in the throes of overwhelming love. Only they aren’t a couple. Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are married to other people. Whoops!
Kim Kardashian being flour-bombed
When Kim Kardashian launched her fragrance True Reflection back in 2012, she certainly didn’t expect to be covered in flour on the red carpet in front of all the cameras and media. But she was, and it was pretty funny. The animal rights activist responsible for the baking goods-themed assault could be heard shouting, “Lousy fur hag!” before being dragged away.
Debra Messing slates E! to E! itself
Debra Messing doesn’t have any time for pay gaps. “I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts,” Debra Messing told E! at the 2018 Golden Globes, referring to Catt Saddler. Sadler quit the network after learning that her male colleague, Jason Kennedy, earned nearly twice her salary.
Jennifer Lawrence trips
Before social media backlash caused her to tone down her kookiness, Jennifer Lawrence really milked her zany public persona for every dime. On the 2014 Oscars red carpet, she fell over causing a bit of a stir. Just the year before, the actress had fallen while accepting her award for Silver Linings Playbook.
Jim Carrey questions reality
E!’s Catt Sadler tried and failed to rein in the unpredictable Jim Carrey during an interview at Harper’s Bazaar’s ICONS party back in 2017. “I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join,” he said, before going on to denigrate the term icon and anyone who finds it in any way aspirational. Yikes!
Jason Derulo falls down the stairs at the Met Gala
Or did he? No. He didn’t. Nevertheless, it’s a meme that is shared every awards season. The man in the picture is actually a random party crasher at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. In 2019, Derulo tweeted: “Let’s clear one thing up, that was NOT me at the #Metgala. Y’all play too much, I was right on my balcony in Miami.”
Taylor Swift gives death stare to lowbrow statement
On the 2015 Grammys red carpet, ET’s Nancy O’Dell told Taylor Swift: “You’re going to walk with more than a trophy tonight, I think, lots of men.” Taylor couldn’t believe her ears. “I’m not going to walk away with any men tonight,” she said after staring deep into O’Dell’s hollow, sensationalist soul.
Elsa Hosk loses her earring
“Where’s my earring?” Elsa Hosk (probably) said while searching to locate her lost accessory on the red carpet of the 2019 Venice International Film Festival. To her credit, the Victoria’s Secret Angel simply bent down and quickly scooped the jewellery up, but unfortunately, the wardrobe malfunction occurred just as dozens of cameras were pointing her way.
Terrence Howard gets philosophical
Terrence Howard said this at the 2019 Emmys: “All energy in the universe is expressed in motion, all motion is expressed in waves, all waves are curved, so where do the straight lines come from to make the platonic solids?” What does that mean? Who knows? Quite frankly, who cares? Not even Howard, probably.
Joan Rivers insults Nicole Kidman’s dress
At the 1992 Oscars, acid-tongued comedienne Joan Rivers ranted at Nicole Kidman: “Nicole! Come tell me why you wore such an ugly colour!” Kidman, who either couldn’t hear Rivers or chose not to, carried on walking. Rivers continued, “I hate that colour! You are making me puke!” To no one in particular.
Lil Uzi Vert has no time for an interview
Giuliana Rancic really doesn’t have a lot of luck on the red carpet, does she? Back at the 2018 Grammys, she interviewed, or tried to interview, Lil Uzi Vert, a rapper and terrible conversationalist. “How are you feeling?” Rancic asked Vert. “I’m feeling normal,” he replied, then left it at that. What a man of few words!
Zac Efron drops a condom
Not too long after his High Musical Days, Zac Efron made headlines for accidentally dropping a condom out of his jeans pocket. The actor was attending the 2012 premiere of his film The Lorax when the rubber fell onto the red carpet. There was no hiding it, and everyone was left to wonder who would be in the mood to hook up after a movie about a fluffy orange environmentalist.
Giuliana Rancic tells Emilia Clarke to leave
Look who it is again! Giuliana Rancic, once again creating an awkward red carpet moment worthy of the history books. Having spotted Heidi Klum while interviewing Emilia Clarke at the 2017 Golden Globes, Rancic told the Game of Thrones star, “You can go,” and swiftly moved on to find her next target. Ouch!
Dakota Johnson and Melanie Griffiths fall out
Moms! Can’t live with them, can’t take them to the 2015 Oscars ceremony without getting on each other’s nerves. The problems began when Melanie Griffith was asked if she’d seen Fifty Shades of Grey, starring her daughter, Dakota. She hadn’t and emphasised she had no plans to. “Alright! You don’t have to see it!” Johnson snapped.
Will Smith slaps prankster
Before the hotheaded Will Smith got his mitts on Chris Rock’s jaw at the 2022 Oscars, he slapped Ukrainian prankster Vitalii Sediuk on the red carpet of the Men in Black 3 premiere in 2012. After Sediuk had tried to turn a hug into a kiss, Smith saw red and back-handed the prankster. “What the hell are you doing, man?” the actor said.
Will Arnett says his ex-wife doesn’t exist
After separating from his wife Amy Poehler, ET asked Will Arnett about how she prepared for the 2013 Emmys. He replied: “I don’t really have a significant other… she doesn’t exist.” He ended the conversation by saying, “I’m excited. I can’t wait to watch this back on YouTube all week.” Weird all around.
Angelina Jolie makes out with her brother
When Angelina Jolie won her Oscar in 2000 for Girl, Interrupted, the victory was unfortunately the last thing anyone was talking about. What made the headlines instead was her making out with her actual brother, and guest to the ceremony, James Haven. Four years later, she said: “First, we’re the best of friends. It was disappointing that something so beautiful and pure could be turned into a circus.”
Pharrell Williams is asked about a non-existent film
While interviewing the producer of Hidden Figures Pharrell Williams in 2017, Jenna Bush Hager instead mistakenly asked him about “Hidden Fences”, a non-existent movie. Hager had possibly confused Hidden Figures with the film Fences, which both starred black casts. Bush Hager apologised the next morning, which the rapper gracefully accepted via Twitter.
Scarlett Johansson ridicules Ryan Seacrest
On the red carpet of the 2017 Oscars, Ryan Seacrest asked Johansson: “Do you actually wear the shoes that you are wearing tonight for the rehearsal?” Johansson, who seems to go viral for being asked inane questions every single month, replied, “What a ridiculous question.”
Rashida Jones is asked about her “tan”
At the 2015 SAG Awards, TNT reporter Danielle Demski told Rashida Jones that she looked like she “just got off an island or something” and “very tan and tropical”. Jones, who is mixed race, barely bothered to reply: “I mean, you know, I’m ethnic.” The other reporter, JD Heyman, who’s white, then declared: “Me too.”
Adam Levine salvages nip-slip
Adam Levine may have laid waste to his ex-girlfriend in Maroon 5’s debut album Songs About Jane but he still has a protective instinct when it comes to the ladies. Just ask his wife Behati Prinsloo, who suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party red carpet. Levine stepped in and prevented any unfortunate pictures, even if he looked slightly awkward doing it.
America Ferrera is sexually harassed
Most of Vitalli Sediuk’s “pranks” are inane but harmless and, most importantly of all, they’re not lewd. However, he overstepped the mark big time at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival when he stuck his head underneath America Ferrera’s dress. Security promptly dragged him away. Ferrera described the encounter as “a weird crazy dream”.
Amy Schumer shares TMI
Everybody who is anybody has been asked the evergreen question: “Who are you wearing?” The correct response is to then name-drop the designer or fashion house responsible before the interview moves on. The whole formula falls apart when you ask Amy Schumer though, as she once replied: “an OB tampon!”
Isaac Mizrahi gropes Scarlett Johansson’s boobs
The 2006 Oscars was a great place to be if you weren’t Scarlett Johansson. During an interview with designer Isaac Mizrahi, the actress revealed that her Valentino gown came with built-in support. Mizrahi then copped a feel. Johansson, nervously laughing, asked, “What is happening?”
Jerry Seinfeld Kesha’s hug request
Poor Kesha. All she wanted to do at David Lynch’s Foundation’s A Night of Laughter and Song in 2017 was approach her idol Jerry Seinfeld and give him a hug. Unfortunately, Seinfeld wasn’t having any of it, and he actually moved away from the singer and plead “No thanks. Yeah, no thanks!” The comedian apparently didn’t know who she was.
Shia LaBeouf wears a paper bag over his head
At the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, Transformers star and constant headline-grabber Shia LaBeouf turned up on the red carpet wearing a brown paper bag over his head graffitied with the words: “I am not famous anymore”. Ironically, if he wasn’t famous anymore at the time, it certainly made him famous again.
