Neil Patrick Harris last night stripped to his underwear for a short period whilst presenting at the Academy Awards.

Neil Patrick Harris at the Oscars

Neil Patrick Harris at the Oscars

Paying homage to one of the evening's biggest winner's 'Birdman', he stepped out at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles in nothing but a pair of white briefs.

"Acting is a noble profession" he joked, before later admitting extra coverage was sewn into his underwear, so there was no risk of flashing all to the audience.

Asked if it was rehearsed, he responded: "The funny thing is, I was running around backstage, going from one side to the other, so I only really had time to take off everything. I probably stood with better posture than I probably normally do...

"But, they had to sew in an extra pair of underwear inside the first pair, because under the lights, one pair revealed too much.

So there wasn't enhancement, just extra coverage - an extra layer because you could see my religion."

His husband David Burtka was particularly pleased by the attire, and joked to E! News: "I see it all the time so I was sharing it with everyone else - you're lucky."

Neil opened the night with a song and dance number featuring Anna Kendrick and Jack Black, which saw him take a journey through 87 years of movie history.

He went on to poke fun at the criticism the awards received for a lac of racial diversity, saying: "Today we honour Hollywood's best and whitest...I mean brightest."

He also referred at one point to the outcry when The Lego Movie was omitted from nominations for Best Animated Feature.

"If you're at an Oscar party with the people from 'The Lego Movie', now might be the best time to distract them."

Not all of his jokes were well received however. When he said about Reese Witherspoon: "This Oscar presenter is so lovely you could eat her up with her spoon," he fell flat, and Octavia Spencer seemed unimpressed with a running gag that saw her asked to keep an eye on a suitcase locked in a glass case.

Even poking fun at himself, whilst introducing Idris Elba and Jessica Chastain he said: "In 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom', he liberated South Africa. In 'Zero Dark Thirty' she brought down Bin Laden. In 'A Million Ways to Die in the West', I pooped in a hat."


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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