HOW HOROWITZ TOOK CONTROL

IT was an embarrassing situation. La La Land producers Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt were on stage and had just realised they had been awarded the Best Picture Oscar in error.

Mr Horowitz marched up to the microphone to make an announcement. “There’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.

“Come up here,” he said, motioning with his hand.

As the audience was gasping with surprise, Mr Horowitz — as if to assure them this was not fake news — held up the card just pulled from the award envelope so that the cameras could zoom in. “I’m going to be really thrilled to hand this to my friends from Moonlight,” he said.

Mr Horowitz was widely praised for his gracious response to the difficult situation. He said afterwards: “It happened really fast. Listen, I’m a producer. I gather things together and I change directions and I march things forward.”