Ellen DeGeneres hosting Oscars: Five highlights from 2007 [Video]

By Mark Olsen

Aug. 2, 2013 4:06 PM PT

When Ellen DeGeneres tweeted Friday morning that she is hosting the 2014 Oscars, it was somehow both a surprise -- the announcement came with so little advance warning -- and no surprise at all that the genial host was returning to the job. Following the fallout from this year’s show, hosted by Seth McFarlane, the academy has gone for more of a sure thing.

Her previous time as host, for the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, was something of a blockbuster year for the movies themselves. “The Departed” won best picture and Martin Scorsese picked up best director, Helen Mirren won best actress for “The Queen” and Forest Whitaker won best actor for “The Last King of Scotland.” (Both Scorsese and Whitaker could be back in the race this year with “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Butler.”)

Here are some clips from that ceremony.

FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2014

DeGeneres set the tone right from the start with her monologue, politely ribbing such nominees as Peter O’Toole, who was on his way to not winning for the eighth time, without ever going over the line.

Among her bits during the show was coming out to do a bit of housecleaning, pushing a vacuum along the front row while ribbing the orchestra:

Her most memorable bits were a little crowd work, taking to the aisle to present a screenplay she wrote -- “A cross between ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Big Momma’s House’” -- to Scorsese.

She would later approach Clint Eastwood and ask Steven Spielberg to take their picture. Because he must do better than a selfie, right?

On her own talk show, Ellen also more recently presented her own suggestions for Oscar speeches. It will be interesting to note how much she follows her own advice to “make it memorable.”