Screenwriter Jim Rash says he was not making fun of Angelina Jolie when he decided to show a little leg on the Academy Awards stage Sunday night. But while standing up there to accept his Oscar for “The Descendants” screenplay, the urge to strike a Jolie-style pose could not be resisted.



View Photo Gallery: Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne and leg extender Jim Rash accepting their Oscar. See More highlights from the 84th annual Academy Awards.

For those who missed the thigh-flashing moment of the year, while presenting the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, Jolie assumed a position that exposed her admittedly exceptional right leg via the slit in her Atelier Versace gown. It was a move that she had already busted out on the Oscar red carpet, as well as one that has inspired its own Twitter feed.



Jolie, knocking us out with her American thigh. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Yes, AngiesRightLeg has already amassed more than 11,000 followers since last night, based on such tweets as: “I’m a leg!,” “Don’t forget about the leg!” and “You have to admit, I’m one hell of a leg.”

When Rash — along with his fellow winners in the adapted screenplay category, Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon — rose to accept the award, the motivation to mimic came over him.

“It was just an impulse,” he told me at the Governors Ball. “I was just standng there and I thought — ” At this point, he paused to, once again, stick his leg out.

“I hope it was okay,” Rash, a.k.a. Dean Pelton from TV’s “Community” and former member of the Groundlings improv troupe, said. “I hope she thought it was okay. It was a loving tribute.”

It’s unclear whether Jolie thought it was loving or not. But was it funny to many of the people watching the Oscars at home? That’s a definite yes.

More on the 2012 Academy Awards:

‘The Artist’ wins best picture; Streep takes home third career Oscar

TV review: Oscar’s wishful thinking

Academy Award winners 2012: Full list led by “The Artist.”

At the Governors Ball, Meryl Streep, Billy Crystal, Melissa McCarthy and more

Oscars 2012: The comprehensive Academy Awards recap

Oscars red carpet Q&A