OSCARS PLAY THE BLAME GAME
Monday morning QBs, including Trump, weigh in
Blame the accountants ... or blame the Hollywood elite.
The East Coast faithful who stayed awake past midnight with Sunday night's Oscars telecast witnessed a history-making live television snafu as the Academy Award for best picture was presented to the wrong flick.
Questions swirl about how Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope with the wrong award winner inside and how Dunaway announced “La La Land” as best picture — only to be contradicted within minutes that the underdog “Moonlight” was the real winner.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the longtime Oscars accounting firm, while apologizing to everyone, including host Jimmy Kimmel and ABC, also promised an investigation. According to Variety, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Brian Cullinan pulled the envelope for what was supposed to be the best picture winner from the wrong pile.
President Trump, in an interview with Breitbart News, had his own theory on the gaffe. He took aim at Hollywood, which has been taking aim at him.
“I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn't get the act together at the end,” Trump said.
“It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars. It didn't feel like a very glamorous evening. I've been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”
But Beatty took the brunt from Monday morning quarterbacks — why, when he saw his card with “Emma Stone LA LA LAND” for the best actress winner, didn't he walk offstage asking, “Is this correct?” Instead Beatty paused, trying to figure out what to say, before showing Dunaway the card.
Backstage Stone said, “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.”
If Oscar has 24 categories, shouldn't there be just 24 Oscar envelopes?
PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed there are 48 envelopes — one set for each of the two PricewaterhouseCoopers partners who stand on opposite sides backstage. Cullinan was positioned stage left during the evening, according to Variety. His colleague, Martha Ruiz, stood in the wings, stage right at the Dolby Theatre. Each had a pile of envelopes for presenters entering from their side of the stage and then a pile of “backup” envelopes for the presenters entering from the other side of the stage.
Despite critical praise for the broadcast and Kimmel's hosting debut, overnight ratings were down to 32.9 million views, a 4 percent drop from last year.
With no blockbuster movies like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in the race and a host who is not a major media star as, say, Ellen Degeneres, this is to be expected.
One could also make the case that expected jokes and attacks on Trump may have turned off conservative viewers, though the January Golden Globes, with Meryl Streep's blistering indictment of the president, drew better ratings than last year.
But Streep's speech was a red flag to Trump supporters, some of whom protested before the Oscars ceremony near the Dolby, the Los Angeles Times reported. About a dozen protesters carried signs, Trump banners and American flags, chanting “Celebrities don't speak for us” and “Hollywood, don't divide us.”
The protest was called by the San Fernando Valley for Trump Celebration group, which said it believed “Hollywood elites” were trying to divide America.
Cinematically, at this year's Oscars the stakes for the mass audience were, unfortunately, seen as minor. “Moonlight” the year's best picture, has drawn $22 million total after four months in theaters, a figure that the weekend's No. 1 movie, “Get Out,” beat by $8 million in its first three days.