Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/February 24 to March 2, 2019

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 24 to March 2, 2019) edit

Prepared with commentary by OZOO

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Don't blame me, I voted for Paddington 2

This week, the viewers have been mostly focused on the 91st Academy Awards, with sixteen of the twenty-five entries linked, directly or indirectly, to the awards. Best Actor winner Rami Malek tops the charts, while there are also places for the winners of Best Original Song (Lady Gaga, #6), Best Picture (Green Book, #7), Best Actress (Olivia Colman, #9), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali, #14), Best Foreign Language Film (Roma, #18) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Spike Lee, #24). Five of the eight Best Picture nominees are included in the 25.

Away from the awards, the probably urban legend that is the Momo challenge took the second place, with Netflix's The Umbrella Academy hitting tenth place and the original comic strip, 19th. Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and current Chelsea F.C. goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga caused difficulties for former and current bosses this week, and both make appearances in the lower reaches of the 25.

For the week of February 24 to March 2, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Rami Malek   2,781,135
 
Rami Malek, who plays Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 91st Academy Awards, wrapping up an awards season that has also seen him win acting awards at the Golden Globes, the SAG awards and the BAFTAs. Malek is the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win the Best Actor Academy Award. His next appearances will be the fourth and final series of Mr. Robot and a voice role as Chee-Chee the gorilla in the talking-animal-athon The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle.
2 Momo Challenge   2,688,438
 
This has nothing to do with the Japanese singer also called Momo, but this Momo looks a lot nicer so we went for this one instead. For those unaware, it has been alleged that a number of children and adolescents have received messages on social media, from accounts using a picture of a sculpture entitled "Mother Bird" and calling themselves "Momo", instructing them to perform a series of tasks culminating in suicide. This phenomenon was first noted by YouTubers ReignBot and Etika in July of last year, but recieved an increased level of attention this week after the Police Service of Northern Ireland issued a public warning about the challenge, and Kim Kardashian posted about the challenge on Instagram. Despite the attention the challenge is receiving, there are no confirmed occasions of anyone actually being harmed by the challenge, and a number of organisations including NSPCC and the Samaritans say the whole thing is a complete hoax. To ease any potential worry, Japanese artist Keisuke Aiso, who created the "Mother Bird" sculpture but was not involved in its use in the alleged challenge, confirmed in an interview that the sculpture had been destroyed, stating "if you'd have seen it in the state it was in, it would have probably looked even more terrifying".
3 Freddie Mercury   2,564,597
 
Played by Academy Award for Best Actor winner Rami Malek (#1) in Bohemian Rhapsody.
4 Bradley Cooper   1,975,800
 
Despite failing to snatch any of the three awards he was nominated for at the 91st Academy Awards - for producing, starring in, and writing A Star Is Born, Cooper gained attention for a performance of the Best Original Song winning "Shallow" with his ASIB co-star Lady Gaga (#6). Some speculated the duet was an indicator that the two of them were truly in love, but the duo have denied it. And in fairness, they are both actors. Good actors. Oscar-nominated actors.
5 91st Academy Awards   1,882,127
 
The Oscars were held at the Dolby Theatre (pictured) on February 24th, going hostless for the first time since the 61st Academy Awards in 1989. A viewership of 29.6 million is a 12% increase on last year.
6 Lady Gaga   1,873,614
 
Gaga picked up the Academy Award for Best Original Song from her second nomination for "Shallow" for the film A Star Is Born, where she was also nominated for Best Actress.
7 Green Book (film)   1,422,196
 
The Academy Award for Best Picture, Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly, is inspired by the story of a tour of the Deep South by African-American pianist Don Shirley and his driver and bodyguard Tony Vallelonga; and is named after The Negro Motorist Green Book (pictured), a guidebook for African-American travellers to help them find motels and restaurants that would accept them at a time of racial segregation. The acting of stars Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen is seen as the highlight of the movie, but despite the awards, the film has been criticised by some for advancing a white savior narrative in film, and by Don Shirley's relatives, who were not contacted by studio representatives during development.
8 Irina Shayk   1,176,991
 
Russian supermodel Shayk is the current partner of Bradley Cooper (#4). Not Lady Gaga, no matter what Oscar viewers may try to convince themselves.
9 Olivia Colman   1,143,884
 
Olivia Colman, who plays Queen Anne in The Favourite, won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 91st Academy Awards, wrapping up an awards season that has also seen her win acting awards at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. Her next big role will also see her play a British monarch, as she takes over as Queen Elizabeth II in the next series of Netflix's The Crown, a role which will almost certainly get her back in this list in a couple of months.
10 The Umbrella Academy (TV series)   1,084,605
 
Netflix's new superhero series, based on the comic book series of the same name. The ensemble cast is led by Ellen Page and Tom Hopper. The series launched on February 15, and has received mostly positive reviews.
11 Lucy Boynton   1,012,178
 
Boynton plays Mary Austin, Freddie Mercury's (#3) partner, in Bohemian Rhapsody (#15), and is currently in a relationship with co-star Rami Malek (#1)
12 A Star Is Born (2018 film)   1,006,149
 
Once seen as a front runner for the 91st Academy Awards, ASIB only managed to convert one of its eight nominations into a win, for Academy Award for Best Original Song. Still, the performance of "Shallow" did get attention to co-stars Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. (#4 and #6)
13 Queen (band)   892,221
 
The subject of Bohemian Rhapsody, two of the original members of Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, are currently partnered with American Idol second placer Adam Lambert; and the group performed "We Will Rock You" & "We Are the Champions" at the Oscars.
14 Mahershala Ali   888,151
 
Mahershala Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Don Shirley in Green Book, the second time in three years Ali has taken that award, after 2016's Moonlight. The win wraps up an awards season that has also seen him win acting awards at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. Additionally, the third season of True Detective finished on February 24, while Ali plays entrepreneur Vector in the currently out Alita: Battle Angel.
15 Bohemian Rhapsody (film)   810,100
 
Despite being seen as the frontrunner, BoRhap missed out on the Academy Award for Best Picture. But it did manage to secure wins for the other nominations it had, for Best Actor (Rami Malek, #1), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing, which I'm sure is some comfort.
16 Deaths in 2019   766,293
 
Our version of the Oscar's In memoriam segment. Ours is longer. But you need to provide your own music.
17 Selma Blair   747,303
 
Selma Blair, the actress known for her roles in films including Cruel Intentions and the Hellboy series, as well as the sitcom Anger Management, was interviewed by Good Morning America on February 26, her first interview since she revealed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in October.
18 Roma (2018 film)   723,096
 
One of two films with ten nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, Netflix's 1970's set drama won three in the end, taking Best Director and Best Cinematography for director Alfonso Cuarón (pictured), as well as being the Best Foreign Language Film. This is the first time a film from Mexico has won Best Foreign Language Film, and the first time since 2007 a foreign-language films has won an award other than Best Foreign Language Film.
19 The Umbrella Academy   716,309
 
The original comic book upon which the TV series (#10) is based, the limited series – 15 issues released so far – is written and created by Gerard Way off of My Chemical Romance.
20 The Favourite   681,458
 
Matching Roma's ten nominations, Yorgos Lanthimos's historical drama film centred on Anne, Queen of Great Britain (pictured) was ultimately only able to take home one Oscar, Olivia Colman's (#9) win for Best Actress.
21 Michael Cohen (lawyer)   665,641
 
Michael Cohen, the former vice-president of The Trump Organisation and a long time associate of Donald Trump, appeared before the House Oversight Committee on February 27. Testifying under oath, he called Mr. Trump a racist and accused him of a number of illegal actions. Cohen is scheduled to begin a three year sentence in federal prison in May for prior convictions including campaign finance violations, tax fraud and perjury, and is almost certainly off the White House Christmas card list.
22 Blue Whale (game)   658,884
 
Very similar to the Momo challenge, (#2) this dates back to 2016. Like with Momo, Blue Whale was a social media scare consisting of a series of tasks culminating in suicide, and like with Momo, no suicides have been confirmed to be linked to the game.
23 Luke Perry   632,306
 
Luke Perry, the actor known for his roles in Beverly Hills, 90210 and the currently popular Riverdale, suffered a major stroke on February 27, and was hospitalized in Los Angeles.
24 Spike Lee   623,167
 
Spike Lee won his first Academy award, for Best Adapted Screenplay, for his film BlacKkKlansman, where he was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Lee's acceptance speech, in which he called for the viewers to "make the moral choice between love versus hate", was interpreted by Donald Trump as an attack on his presidency, with Trump tweeting to call it a "racist hit".
25 Kepa Arrizabalaga   614,432
 
And we end with an oddity from what had been a rather dull 2019 EFL Cup Final. With the match between goalkeeper Arrizabalaga's side Chelsea and Manchester City goalless nearing the end of extra time, Arrizabalaga twice went down injured with cramp, with manager Maurizio Sarri attempting to replace him with Willy Caballero for the penalty shoot-out – Caballero having helped City win the 2016 Football League Cup Final on penalties – but Arrizabalaga insisted on staying on, in what was seen as a direct challenge to his manager's authority. While Arrizabalaga did manage to save once in the shoot-out, he also let a shot from Sergio Agüero slip through his fingers as City retained their title. While both Arrizabalaga and Sarri insisted the situation was just a misunderstanding between the pair, Arrizabalaga was fined and dropped for Chelsea's next match.
 
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 24 to March 2, 2019)
Other Oscars related articles
  • The other Best Picture nominees:
  • Other major award winners:

Exclusions edit

  • This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.