In arguably the biggest scandal to ever come out of the awards show, Will Smith took to the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock across the face after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith's, shaved head during the 2022 broadcast. Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia. Later in the evening, Smith went on to win the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in"King Richard". Following the incident, Smith was banned from attending Academy events for 10 years.
Menzel later spoke about the unforgettable error, saying she had just eight seconds to compose herself before hitting the Oscars stage to perform"Let It Go" from"Frozen". During a"Carpool Karaoke" segment, she quipped of Travolta's flub,"It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me."In January 2015, the Oscar nominations were announced, revealing predominantly white nominees. This sparked April Reign, photographed in the image, tothe hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which went viral on Twitter. That year, the film"Selma", directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.