During Sunday night’s Academy Awards, host Conan O’Brien took a playful jab at Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, in his opening monologue.
O’Brien, a veteran late-night host and first-time Oscars emcee, made light of Amazon MGM Studios’ recent acquisition of the James Bond film franchise. He teased the audience by announcing the next Bond actor. However, instead of revealing a major Hollywood scoop, O’Brien joked that the new 007 was actually Amazon’s senior vice president of global affairs, Steve Belsky. He quipped, “Ladies love him,” as a fake corporate headshot of Belsky appeared on the screen.
In reality, Amazon’s chief of global affairs is David Zapolsky, who has been with the company for 25 years.
O’Brien also joked about Bezos’s arrival on the Oscars red carpet. He showed a video of an Amazon delivery driver dropping off a long package and joked, “There he is! He seems undamaged.”
When the cameras cut to an empty seat in the audience, O’Brien questioned where Bezos was. The joke continued with more footage showing a “porch pirate” stealing the package outside the theater.
