The 96th Academy Awards were held on March 10th, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Comedian-host Jimmy Kimmel hosted the ceremony for the fourth time following his stint at the 2017, 2018, and 2023 ceremonies. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy won major awards at the ceremony including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor.
Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue has drawn a lot of attention leaving a lot of audience members unscathed. From calling out the Academy for Barbie snubs to poking fun at Robert Downey Jr.’s substance abuse, Kimmel also took a jab at the legendary actor and his personal life.
Jimmy Kimmel’s jab at Robert De Niro’s life draws laughs from the actor
Comedian-host Jimmy Kimmel who returned as the host of 96th Academy Awards on March 10th, 2024 made a significant comment about legendary actor Robert De Niro. The actor was nominated for his brilliant work on Killers of the Flower Moon as Best Supporting Actor. Kimmel in his opening monologue said,
“In 1976, Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert De Niro’s daughter. Now she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend.”
The joke landed perfectly as the actor laughed while Jodie Foster nodded along with mouthing ‘It’s true’, to the camera. But fans pointed the jab was at De Niro’s relationship with 45-year-old Tiffany Chen with whom he welcomed a daughter back in April 2023; Gia Virginia.
Talking to People, De Niro shared about his family including the newest addition to the family, and said,
“She’s such an adorable baby. So Sweet. When I look at her, everything else goes away. So it’s a great joy and relief to just be with her in the moment. The kids all get a big kick out of her. The grandkids even. She’s their aunt—and they’re about to be teenagers.”
The actor is the father to Drena and Raphael from his first wife Diahnne Abbott, twins Julian and Aaron from ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith, and Elliot and Helen from ex-wife Grace Hightower. De Niro stated that he loves it when all of them are together adding that it means everything to him.
Kimmel in his monologue also shared that 48 years ago, De Niro and Foster were nominated for Taxi Driver and now they are nominated once again.
Jimmy Kimmel addresses WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes at Oscars 2024
Kimmel in his opening monologue did not forget to address the highlights of 2023 which were the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes which brought the industry to stand still for a few months. He said,
“We can be proud of the fact that this long and difficult work stoppage taught us that this very strange town of ours, at its heart, is a union town.”
He added that it is not ‘just a bunch of heavily Botoxed, Hailey Bieber smoothie-drinking, diabetes prescription-abusing, gluten-sensitive nepo babies with perpetually shivering Chihuahuas.’ The host lastly added a thank you to everyone who supported the strikes adding that they want WGA and SAG-AFTRA to know that in their upcoming negotiation, the industry will stand with them.
Robert Downey Jr. beat Robert De Niro for the award of Best Supporting Actor for his work as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.
Killers of the Flower Moon is streaming on Apple TV+ and Oppenheimer is streaming on Peacock.
