Cocaine Bear goes viral after Elizabeth Banks blames him for tripping her at Oscars
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Kentucky's favorite party animal made a surprise appearance alongside the film's director at the Oscars on Sunday night.
Viral clips of Elizabeth Banks stumbling over the hem of her dress - and blaming it on the bear - surfaced after the awards show.
Banks entered the stage wearing a long dress and tripped, before catching herself. "Hit the mark. Thank you," she said to the audience with Cocaine Bear trailing behind her. "Oh my god, he tripped me." Banks presented the Oscar for the Best Visual Effects category and said that without them, the bear would just be, well, a bear.
"Put your paw down," she joked. "Are you trying to score right now? You need to wait till the afterparty like everybody else."
The bit continued offstage when Cocaine Bear approached audience members during Jimmy Kimmel's monologue, including Malala Yousafzai, who became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate in 2014. Kimmel shouted "Leave Malala alone!" at the bear − a reference to a video from 2011 in which Chris Crocker pleaded with viewers to "Leave Britney alone."
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Cocaine Bear's reality was gruesome: A 175-pound black bear died from an overdose, a tragedy linked to Andrew Thornton II, a notorious Lexington drug smuggler who was found dead after a fall from an airplane - his parachute was unopened and he had packages of cocaine strapped to him. Investigator's later found the flight path of Thornton's plane had crossed north Georgia, where the bear had been found with dozens of open containers with traces of cocaine surrounding him.
The film premiered in theaters on Feb. 24 and stars Ray Liotta, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Keri Russell. It grossed about $23 million in its opening weekend, according to the Associated Press.
Contact reporter Rae Johnson at RNJohnson@gannett.com. Follow them on Twitter at @RaeJ_33.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Cocaine Bear video goes viral after Elizabeth Banks trips at Oscars
