My daughters and I play Oscars Bingo every year, and we include squares like “Someone is played off stage” and “Someone says the word sister”, but we also include squares like [someone wears fashion] “Inspired by France” and [Inspired by] “Pearl” (from Splatoon 2).
It’s a blast, and can make even the more boring parts of the ceremony more exciting. This year we used Bingo Baker to create online cards so my brother and his wife could join in from six states away. My tween, Aeris, won but we all had fun – and we saw plenty of heroine chic along the way!
Spider-Man was one of the character spaces on our card and when Stephen James took the stage to present the award for Best Makeup and Hair Styling, my daughter said “That could be a Spider-Man from Into the Spider-Verse who wears a tuxedo!” and she is entirely correct.
And Marvel or Sony should absolutely get on making a Tuxedo Spidey!
But the Academy Award-winning Spider-Verse wasn’t the only place to look for superheroes. Capes are now officially a trend! Melissa McCarthy wore two, a stunning white satin one to walk the Carpet:
Holly Frey on Twitter called this “high fashion Orson Krennic” which is both hilarious and apt, and the comparison slides her over into the “villain” category, but then she wore a train covered in plush rabbits to present the award for Best Costume Design.
My brother used this for his “Inspired by a Disney Princess” square – claiming the abundance of bunnies reminded him of Sleeping Beauty but what if Disney chose to make a new animated classic starring Melissa McCarthy?! We all deserve that film.
But Aeris chose Maria Menunous as her Disney Princess, Belle, and then she, in turn, interviewed Constance Wu, who is clearly, another Belle.
And we all deserve that film, too.
Princesses are all well and good, but the leader of the Terran Empire also graced us with her presence and is my definition of royalty:
As a Star Trek actor, Michelle Yeah gave me my first square of the night, and in terms of fashion, well, she is out of this world, and probably my favorite look of the evening.
When designing our cards, we made of point of including characters and themes that are most important to each of us, which means “Anakin Skywalker” got a square because he is my most favorite character in all of fiction. I was determined to find one and I am very pleased to present:
Allison Janney!! I could not have been more excited to see her all dressed up in velvet Vader chic.
Now, every super story needs a super trio.
Amy Poehler was also in black while Maya Rudolph had a cape and gave us a pun – a square we all had!
We were all thrilled with the awards for Black Panther, its music, costumes, and production design definitely stood out this year. Plus Hannah Beachler is an adorable nerd.
Look at her! I love her! I would 1000% read a comic book about her.
Speaking of adorable and nerdy girls, the Bao duo gave a shout out to “all the nerdy girls” in their acceptance speech and I have a lot of feelings about that.
Another great speech delivered while wearing amazing fashion?
First of all, he’s close to Nick Fury, so he’s an Avenger. Second of all, his outfit is inspired by Prince – and resembles both Stan Shunpike and Waluigi so it is triply amazing.
And another great speech, given by a great actress wearing a great dress that reminds me of some kind of sea creature. Let’s get Olivia Colman another Oscar playing a glam Earth witch.
But Superhero of the Night goes to Glenn Close wearing forty pounds of gold.
With a cape! She is literally an Academy Award superheroine, an Oscar statue come to life, and I love her. I believe someday the Academy will have to relent and give her her due but until then, at least I can give her my top prize.
