Accountant goofed top Oscar prize

UNITED STATES: One of the two accountants in charge of Oscars vote counting mistakenly handed actor Warren Beatty the wrong envelope for the best picture award, sparking the chaotic ending of the Academy Awards, a spokesman for the accounting firm said yesterday.

Beatty was handed the wrong envelope during Monday’s show by Brian Cullinan, a managing partner of PWC, formerly known as Pricewaterhousecoopers, who heads the firm’s relationship with the Oscars, PWC spokesman Maolin Shen said, declining to elaborate.

When he opened the envelope for the best picture award, a confused Beatty showed it to actress and fellow presenter Faye Dunaway, who proclaimed La La Land when the award, in fact, belonged to Moonlight.

But the two presenters had been reading from a card announcing that Emma Stone was named best actress for her work in La La Land.

After the error was rectified on the stage of the Dolby Theatre, PWC went from being a venerable partner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a punchline.

That was especially true on social media such as Twitter, where the firm repeatedly was lambasted with snide remarks about how it ‘‘had only one job’’ at the Oscars and blew it.

Shen declined comment on whether Cullinan faced any disciplinary action or whether the firm’s contract with the academy might be affected by the mistake.

In any case, Pwc’s reputation has taken a hit, at least for now, some analysts said.

But Pwc’s global long-term reputation and brand loyalty among its corporate clients should remain intact – if PWC quickly rectifies what went wrong and tells the whole world about it.

– LA Times