Oscars 2015: Neil Patrick Harris plays it safe as host -- mostly

Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris kicked off a controversial 87th Academy Awards by conceding the ceremony's much-discussed lack of diversity.

"Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest -- I mean brightest," Harris said in his introduction at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday. All of this year's acting nominees are white, a situation that led some to push for a boycott of the broadcast. (Ava DuVernay, the black director of "Selma," was also not nominated.)

For the rest of the night, though, Harris mostly played it safe. On a stage drenched in Oscar gold, Harris performed his opening number, which celebrated a love of movies. Harris was superimposed into movie scenes from such films as "The Wizard of Oz," "Ghost" and "Into the Woods." He emerged from that last scene to sing a duet with Anna Kendrick, who made a joke about the fate of his character in "Gone Girl." (Harris responded: "Spoiler alert.")

Harris' opening number also felt like a plea to America to keep going to the movies. Jack Black, playing the grouchy villain, jumped on stage to bicker about Hollywood's focus on high-grossing movies "opening with lots of zeros, all we get is superheroes." He added that "After '50 Shades of Grey,' they'll all have leather whips." But Harris soldiered on: "Moving pictures, millions of pixels on screens / They may not be real life, but they'll show you what life really means."

Elsewhere, Harris stuck to the most obvious jokes. He ribbed Channing Tatum about strutting his stuff as a male stripper and a "wrestler in a onesie" in "Foxcatcher." He made a pun: "Our next presenter is so lovely you could eat her up Witherspoon." He made fun of his own past as a teen star (on "Doogie Howser, M.D.") as well, calling Jason Bateman "the most well-adjusted former child actor in the room."

Harris roamed through the audience, poking gentle fun at famous people. At one point, he asked Steve Carell if he was a "seat filler." He did, however, take another swipe at the diversity issue when he strolled up to David Oyelowo -- who was shut out of the best acting category despite his turn as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in "Selma" -- and noted the audience's applause. "Oh, sure," Harris said, "now you like him."

Another memorable Harris moment saw the host strip down to his underwear in an homage to "Birdman."