The Oscars’ most infamous moments have included Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway reading off the wrong Best Picture in 2017 and Jennifer Lawrence’s trip to the podium four years earlier.
But another major mishap was narrowly avoided just 18 seconds before going live at the 2020 ceremony.
“I was wearing a stunning dress that had a halter clasp at the neck,” Beanie Feldstein recalled in W Magazine’s new “Pop & Fall Fashion Issue,” published Monday. “The gown had boning and a sort of shelf for the bust, but there was no bra involved.”
The actress explained, “I’m all about representation, and I’m here to represent big, low-hanging Jewish breasts. … The halter on the dress was struggling. It was hanging on for dear life. There was a countdown clock backstage, and there was a minute and 20 seconds left before I had to go on in front of an audience of millions.”
Feldstein remembered seeing “the wall of Oscar statues that they were about to hand out to incredible people” as she waited backstage to introduce fellow presenter Mindy Kaling — and that’s when she almost suffered an ill-timed wardrobe malfunction in her white Miu Miu gown.
“I was nervous and accidentally stepped on the front hem of my dress, and with that step, the clasp gave way,” she recounted. “At that point, there was 18 seconds to go.”
Fortunately, Feldstein said “someone backstage had a safety pin and reclasped” her.
“But I almost flashed the entire world that night,” she added. “The moral of this story is, I’m a busty, low-hanging Jewish girl, and you have to be who you are. Which means no more halters.”
The breakout star is next set to play Monica Lewinsky in “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” She told W that she sympathizes with the former White House intern, who was at the center of a late ’90s sex scandal with then-President Bill Clinton.
“I’m queer, so I don’t know if I’d flirt with the president, but who knows? When Clinton shined his light on you, there was no better feeling in the world. It wouldn’t matter if you were male, female, nonbinary, queer. When that man put his spotlight on you, the world fell away,” she said. “And if I was 22 and the most powerful person in the world focused his high beams on me, I would probably do the exact same thing as Monica.”
Feldstein appears on one of four special covers for the mag headed by Sara Moonves.