Onstage at the El Capitan Theatre at Sunday night's Oscars, Best Actress winner Meryl Streep thanked her longtime makeup artist, J. Roy Helland, for transforming her face for the past 37 years.

Backstage, the now three-time Oscar-winning actress, 62, revealed the fashion disaster Helland caused her early  in the  show when he accepted his own Oscar, his first.

Read the full list of 2012 Oscar winners.

"I broke the belt," Streep told " Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts of the mishap to her long-sleeve, Oscar-gold gown by Lanvin when she celebrated Helland's win for his work transforming Streep into Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."

"I jumped up and the belt went [crack], so I had a wardrobe misfunction in the fourth award," she said.

PHOTOS: Best and Worst Dressed on the Oscar Red Carpet

While Streep was suffering from wardrobe distress, her fellow Oscar-winning actress, Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer, told Roberts that she was just happy she made it to the stage safely.

"I think they were happy that I didn't fall down these stairs," " The Help" star said of the standing ovation she received when her name was called and she made the treacherous walk from her seat to the stage.

Click here for 5 more backstage Oscars moments.

It was only with the Oscar safely in her hand, Spencer revealed, that she felt the audience's love, and channeled an earlier Oscar winner.

"Well, this in the words of Sally Field, they like me, they really like me," Spencer said.  "It's wonderful."

"I have this affair with this guy," she said of her first-time Oscar.  "He is going to lay on the pillow next to me tonight."

While the ladies felt the love and repaired their wardrobes, the leading winners on the men's side revealed to Roberts what winning Hollywood's most coveted award means to them.

"I don't go around all my life thinking about the Oscars … but when it happens it comes as sort of a huge knockout surprise," Best Supporting Actor winner Christopher Plummer said.

"It rejuvenates your career a little bit," said Plummer, 82, now the oldest Oscar-winning actor ever.  "It reminds people you still have a pulse."

For Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin, the win was equal to the love of a country.

"It's a love, a love from America," said Frenchman Dujardin, who took home the prize for his work in Best Picture winner "The Artist."

"It's unbelievable for a stupid, French actor," he said.  "Now I'm stupid, but I have an Oscar."

Full coverage of the 2012 Oscars.