Can’t win it all! Neil Patrick Harris had his hands full while hosting the 87th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 22. The multi-talented actor managed to do his whole song and dance without a trip, but flubbed over multiple stars’ names, including Margot Robbie’s!
The How I Met Your Mother star made his first flub while announcing presenters Nicole Kidman and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Kidman’s name was no problem, but he stumbled over the 12 Years a Slave star’s, calling him “Chitiwel Ejiofor.” Harris then corrected himself and attempted to reconcile his flub during a final skit where he told the audience while reading his Oscars predictions: “I will intentionally mispronounce Chiwetel Ejiofor’s name to bring public awareness to the proper pronunciation of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s name.”
While showing off his trim bod in just his underwear later on in the show, the emcee fumbled with Focus actress Margot Robbie’s name, pronouncing her name as “Row-bee.”
By far the biggest flub of the night, however, was David Oyelowo’s, which Harris messed up numerous times.
While chatting with E!’s Catt Sadler during the network’s afterparty show, Oyelowo admitted he was caught off guard by the flub, too.
“He butchered it,” Oyelowo told Sadler after the show while making his way into the Governors Ball afterparty. “I even had Brad Pitt singing my name all over YouTube,” he added, referring to when Angelina Jolie’s hubby gave reporters a tutorial on how to pronounce the Selma actor’s name during the Palm Springs Film Festival. “He was friendly to me backstage so I don’t know why he’d do that,” he concluded.
Watch NPH’s fumbles above!