Apologies all round in wake of worst gaffe at the Oscars
THE Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is apologizing to the cast and crews of the films “La La Land” and “Moonlight” for the mistaken announcement of the best picture winner during Sunday night’s Oscars award ceremony.
The academy’s apology comes after PwC, the accounting firm responsible for the integrity of the Academy Awards, said mistakes were made and its staff did not move quickly enough to correct the biggest error in Oscars history.
“We deeply regret the mistakes that were made during the presentation of the Best Picture category during last night’s Oscar ceremony,” the academy said yesterday.
The academy also apologized to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and to fans watching around the world.
The academy’s statement noted PwC had been entrusted with handling Oscar votes for 83 years but said the academy “will determine what actions are appropriate going forward.”
Three of the producers of “La La Land” had spoken to celebrate the announcement the film had won best picture before the actual winner, the coming-of-age drama “Moonlight,” was eventually declared.
“PwC takes full responsibility for the series of mistakes and breaches of established protocols during last night’s Oscars,” PwC wrote. It said its partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway an envelope containing the winner of the best actress award.
“Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough,” the statement read.
The firm, which has handled Oscar winner announcements for eight decades, also apologized to Beatty, Dunaway, the cast and crew of “La La Land” and “Moonlight,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and host Jimmy Kimmel.
“We wish to extend our deepest gratitude to each of them for the graciousness they displayed during such a difficult moment,” the statement said. “Last night we failed the academy.”
The statement came after nearly a day of speculation about how the gaffe unfolded.
The mystery deepened on Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Cullinan tweeted a behind-the-scenes photo of Stone holding her statuette. “Best Actress Emma Stone backstage!” the tweet read. The tweet, sent moments before the best picture announcement, raised the question of whether the accountant was distracted from the task at hand.
The mistaken announcement altered the usual celebration that follows the coronation of a best picture winner. The only Oscars mistake that came close occurred in 1964, when Sammy Davis was given the wrong envelope for best music score winner but made a quick correction.
The La La Land-Moonlight mixup, in contrast, took a long time to be corrected, with two-plus minutes elapsing before it was announced to the filmmakers and the world at large.
The embarrassing episode stepped squarely on what should have been a night of high-fiving for the academy.
After last year’s awards were clouded by the #OscarsSoWhite protests, diversity ruled on Sunday as actors Viola Davis (“Fences”) and Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”) were among the people of color claiming trophies, while “Moonlight” focused on African-American characters.
On paper, the process for announcing Oscars winners seems straightforward. As per protocol, Cullinan and PwC colleague Martha Ruiz toted briefcases to the awards via the red carpet, each holding an identical set of envelopes for the show’s 24 categories. The accountants also memorize the winners.
During the telecast, the accountants were stationed in the Dolby Theatre wings, one stage left and one stage right, to give presenters their category’s envelope before they went on stage. Most presenters entered stage right, where Cullinan was posted and where he handed Beatty and Dunaway the errant envelope.
Yet the previous award, best actress, had been presented by Leonardo DiCaprio, who entered stage left and received the envelope from Ruiz. That left a duplicate, unopened envelope for best actress at stage right.
“It’s a simple process, if a painstaking one,” said Dan Lyle, who had Oscar duties for PriceWaterhouse for 11 years in the 1980s and 1990s. Accountants attended rehearsals to learn whether presenters would enter from the right or left. But given the possibility of last-minute changes, both accountants had a full set of envelopes.
When Lyle ended up with a redundant envelope for a category handled by his colleague, he said, he got it out of the way by stuffing it in a pocket or otherwise discarding it before moving on to the next award.
Nigel Currie, an independent branding specialist in London, said the misnaming was “as bad a mess-up as you could imagine. They had a pretty simple job to do and messed it up spectacularly,” he said.