Still on a high from last week’s Golden Globes, where she won best actress for Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence was a charming — albeit visibly nervous — host. The timing worked out well for Lawrence, as the episode gave her a chance to explain the poorly-received “I beat Meryl” comment she made during her Globes acceptance speech. But during her monologue — which included lighthearted jabs at her fellow best actress Oscar nominees — the young actress was nearly upstaged by Bill Hader, who sat in the crowd playing a stone-faced Tommy Lee Jones.
Lawrence at first seemed a bit uncomfortable with the series of digs directed toward her fellow Oscar nominees, but she soon hit her stride with the joke about Beasts of the Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis: “The alphabet called. They want their letters back.”