Movie history by accident

Every year we observe the Academy Awards, it’s a reach into our cultural history, but some occasions the event digs into history more than others, by accident. Actors and actresses can tap into their antecedents without even realizing it (or maybe they do).

It happened on March 2, Oscar Sunday. In one of her wild dashes into the coiffed, nipped and tucked audience at the Dolby Theater, Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres brought out a smartphone and started snapping selfies. It got out of hand when she gathered with people in the audience — Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o, Kevin Spacey, et freakin al. — for what turned out to be the most retweeted photo on Twitter ever. Ellen’s arm was too short to do the honors herself, so Bradley Cooper took the image that temporarily brought down Twitter.

If the composition looks vaguely familiar, that’s because it is. Sorta.

Somewhere, Gregg Toland is smiling. Hey Cooper, if this acting thing doesn’t quite work out, you’ve got a future as a cinematographer.

Backstage, after Nyong’o’s big win, the newly-minted Oscar winner got to horsing around with Jennifer Lawrence, who won her own Golden Dude last year. We’ve always known actors and actresses were competitive in Hollywood. Lupita and J-Law put a comedic spin on that fact:

Wonder if they knew about what happened between Marlon Brando and Bob Hope at the 1955 Oscars:

What can you say? Hoo ... ray ... for .... history.

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Image credits: Oscars selfie: Bradley Cooper. Still from Citizen Kane: © 1941 RKO Radio Pictures. Lawrence and Nyong’o: via JustJared.com. Brando and Hope: GoneMovie.com