IT’S OSCARS SHOWTIME
GLAMOUR AND AWARDS:
THE Oscars have ended with a moment that left everyone speechless – but not in a way anyone expected.
The biggest mix-up in the Oscars’ history saw La La Land announced the winner of the night’s greatest prize, Best Picture, by veteran actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
The La La Land filmmakers were partway through their speeches when the real winner of the Oscar, Moonlight, was announced. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins looked gobsmacked at his swing in fortunes. La La Land’s producers gracefully handed over their Oscars. “I’m going to be proud to hand this to my friends at Moonlight,” Jordan Horowitz said. Amid mass confusion – and host Jimmy Kimmel assuring everyone it wasn’t a joke – Beatty, who had handed an incorrect card to Dunaway who read out the incorrect winner, returned to the mic to explain the stuff-up.
“I want to tell you what happened,” Beatty said. “I opened the envelope and it said, ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’ – that’s why I took such a long look. I wasn’t trying to be funny. This is Moonlight, the Best Picture.”
Australian actor Nicole Kidman said: “I’m in shock. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
When he got to the microphone, Jenkins said: “Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true. But to hell with dreams. I’m done with it because this is true.”
During her interview backstage afterwards, a wide-eyed Emma Stone – who had been up on stage with the La La Land team as they accepted their Best Picture “win” – declared: “Whoo! You guys see that?!”
Asked her reaction to the mix-up, she certainly didn’t sound disappointed. “I ... love Moonlight,” she said.
Without naming names, Stone questioned Beatty’s “wrong envelope” explanation.
“I was also holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card that entire time, so whatever story – I don’t mean to start stuff – but whatever story that was, I had that card.”
Other big winners included Casey Affleck who won Best Actor for Manchester By
The Sea and Damien Chazelle who took home the Best Director gong for La La Land.