Oscar 2015 Highlights

Birdman beats Boyhood but Patricia Arquette owns Oscar spotlight

Although Boyhood has been an awards season favorite in the run-up to the 2015 Academy Awards, in the end, Richard Linklater's gutsy 12-year experiment was overshadowed by another bravura piece of filmmaking, as Birdman edged it out in a tight race for Best Picture.

Texas film Boyhood had been nominated for six Oscars but wound up only winning one: Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette. Birdman also won Best Director for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography, tying The Grand Budapest Hotel for most awards of the night.

One of the few big question marks of the night, Best Actor, went to Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything. As expected, Julianne Moore won Best Actress for Still Alice, and J.K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash.

Because most of the big awards were predictable, most of the excitement came from host Neil Patrick Harris, who had previously been impressive in hosting the Tony Awards and Emmy Awards multiple times. His "Moving Pictures" opener, along with other small moments throughout the program, demonstrated why he's the pro's pro when it comes to hosting awards shows.

The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Houston's Wes Anderson, won four awards, including Best Score, Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hair. Whiplash, which I considered the best film of the year, was the only other film to win multiple awards, winning Best Sound Mixing and Best Editing in addition to Simmons' trophy.

Best moments of the show:

Patricia Arquette stood up for women's rights and equal pay in her acceptance speech, a popular if seemingly out-of-nowhere proclamation. It got quite the reaction, especially from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez.
"Glory" from Selma was the sure winner for Best Song, and John Legend and Common's performance only cemented its status. David Oyelowo, snubbed for playing Martin Luther King Jr. in the film, broke hearts by crying at the song's beauty, emotion that carried over to the powerful speech by the two singers after they won the award.
The performance by Tegan & Sara and The Lonely Island of "Everything is Awesome" from The Lego Movie was also memorable, especially with the handing out of multiple Lego Oscars, a sly reference to a tweet by the film's co-director, Philip Lord.
Harris re-created a great Birdman moment, coming out in just his underwear. Bonus points for featuring a drum cameo by Miles Teller, who would've been nominated for his lead role in Whiplash in a less crowded year.
Lady Gaga performed a perfectly lovely and unexpectedly normal medley of songs from The Sound of Music.
Eddie Redmayne was giddy and spirited during his acceptance speech, a nice antithesis to the spate of serious acceptance speeches by others.

Patricia Arquette took home Boyhood's lone Oscar, winning for Best Supporting Actress.

Patricia Arquette at the 2015 Academy Awards

Photo courtesy of ABC Craig Sjodin

Patricia Arquette took home Boyhood's lone Oscar, winning for Best Supporting Actress.

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State Fair News

Irish social media star takes on outrageous food at State Fair of Texas

Instagram

Garron Noone and a State Fair of Texas post.

Many a word has been written about the over-the-top food served at the annual State Fair of Texas, and the latest comes from Garron Noone, the Irish musician, comedian, and social media star who's become an international sensation for his witty posts and reviews on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Noone surged to fame in late 2022 for his incredibly funny, often profanity-laden posts on life in Ireland, dryly promoting the Irish as the most attractive and appealing nationality while sarcastically denigrating the rest — and always capping his posts with his catchphrase, "Follow me, I'm delicious."

His combination of satiric outrage, self-deprecating modesty, and sharp wit have garnered him nearly 2.4 million followers on Instagram and in 2024, he won a Gossie Award for "newcomer of the year."

Food is a frequent topic (he has strong opinions on the right way to make a cup of tea), and he likes covering on extreme foods — so it's no surprise he would take on the State Fair of Texas, with a September 27 post called "Shocking Texas State Fair Footage" where he provides commentary, in his trademark Irish brogue, on a compilation of State Fair visitors eating new foods being served at the State Fair of Texas in 2025.

"This Texas State Fair is fucking crazy," is his opening line, as he introduces a clip showing the making of Rousso’s Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick, featuring a 12-inch piece of bacon with a cotton candy glaze on top, which won a Big Tex Choice Award in 2024.

"Look at this," Noone says, aghast. "This is bacon cotton candy. He is melting the cotton candy right onto the bacon so it's just concentrated death. I'm outraged, I'm disgusted, you may notice the tears," he says pointing to the corner of his eyes — "but I simply must go to Texas and seek this blessing."

Next up is a fair visitor, chowing on a turkey leg.

"This is a turkey leg? I have never seen a fucking turkey like that," he says. "This is definitely the leg of a mythical creature. Whatever it was when it was alive, we don't have it in Ireland and we don't fucking want it."

The next post is a visitor whose order includes the What on Earth is This? A UFO-shaped smash burger atop ranch onion rings with a syringe you use to inject a mysterious sauce.

"What on earth is this?" is superimposed over the guy squeezing the syringe, provoking Noone to say, "Oh, it looks like it needs to undergo a medical procedure before being consumed."

Noone reveals a love-hate relationship with corndogs, stating that he's never had one.

"Corndogs have always looked disgusting to me— like they'd be warm in a very unsettling way," he says, before lamenting that he's ending his video without getting a chance to review the deep fried butter.

"I might have to do a part two," he says.

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