Oscars 2012: Greatest Academy Awards Highlights [SLIDESHOW]

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony on 26 February will feature the usual mixture of tears, laughter and perhaps a hint of controversy.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Marlon Brando and South Park were among those who got that little bit extra coverage for going off-script.

International Business Times UK warms up the crowds with a look back at some of the most memorable moments of Hollywood's biggest night out.

Considering his hyperactive performance in Jerry Maguire in 1996, organisers of the Oscars should have suspected that fact could well mirror fiction when Cuba Gooding Jr was named best supporting actor.
Clearly emotional, he had not prepared a speech and overran his allotted time before the house band piped up, hinting that it was time to wrap things up. Far from being put off, he just got louder, thanking everyone involved as the crowd continued to cheer.

When Gwyneth Paltrow won Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love she was a touch overwhelmed. Her tearful, borderline hysterical acceptance speech has gone down in history as a genuine moment of a professional letting their emotions get the better of them - with cringe-worthy results.

No stranger to controversy, Marlon Brando did not take to the stage in 1973 when he was named Best Actor for his performance in The Godfather.
Instead a young Indian woman called Sasheen Littlefeather went to the microphone and explained that Brando would not accept the award because of the 'treatment of American Indians by the film industry'.
Some of the crowd cheered, many booed.

Hollywood got a dose of European exuberance when Italian Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for holocaust drama Life is Beautiful. Overcome with emotion he climbed on chairs, jumped up and down on the stage and professed his love for everyone in the room. A slightly different tactic to the humble acceptance speeches traditionally found at the Academy Awards.

Amid all of the back-patting and histrionics, it's always good to be reminded not to take the awards ceremonies too seriously.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, were never going to make that mistake. When South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was nominated in the Best Song category in 2000 the pair turned up - and turned heads - dressed as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez.
They told Joan Rivers on the red carpet: “It’s a night of magic and stars and everyone looks fabulous.” When asked if their parents were watching, Stone replied “My mum was watching until right about now.”

Security was a little more relaxed at the Oscars in the 70s. That can be the only explanation for the moment in 1974 when David Niven’s introduction of Elizabeth Taylor was interrupted by a naked man flashing a peace sign as he ran across stage.
Niven, the consummate professional, said: “Isn’t it fascinated to think that the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?”
The streaker was later revealed to be photographer and gallery owner Robert Opel. Killed during a robbery in 1979, he secured his place in Oscars history with his performance.