"No pressure, only a billion people are watching, whatever you feel is right," Ellen DeGeneres, host of the 2014 Oscars, shouted at Harvey Weinstein, after she ordered about 30 dozen boxes of pizza which she had no spare cash for.
Even though Ellen did not sing songs about seeing actresses’ boobs on screen, as we saw last year with Seth MacFarlane, she was still hilarious. This year, the show’s kickoff featured DeGeneres arriving on stage to deliver a simple, but satisfyingly funny, monologue. She playfully bantered with the nominees and joked about Hollywood foibles. Unlike many hosts in the past, she was a regular presence, even gathering up stars in the audience for a group selfie. Yet she still did what any host would do—she stayed involved and made sure that everyone was having fun. However, while doing so, she was not exactly kindness itself. She called out nominees such as Amy Adams for not attending college, and ended her monologue with the bold comment that he evening would end in two possible ways: "Possibility number one, 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. Possibility two: you're all racists." Thank God that 12 Years ended up winning!
Watching DeGeneres stroll through the audience to pat nominees on the head and giving Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Copper slices of pizza, made those three and a half hours pass quickly and enjoyably. Overall, DeGeneres made the long, long evening very worthwhile.