Beatty backstage Oscar clash

WARREN Beatty refused to hand over the envelope evidence to Oscars security after the nowfamous flub that erroneously crowned “La La Land” as the year’s Best Picture.

A source at the awards show told Page Six that an embarrassed Beatty was backstage after the epic error, and was about to step into an elevator with fellow stars and PriceWaterhouseCoopers brass when he was ordered to turn over the envelopes that caused the confusion — but he refused.

“Beatty was getting into an elevator, and they asked him to turn over the envelopes,” said a source who saw the exchange. But, “He said no, he was going to keep them.” The source said Beatty wanted the envelopes as proof he wasn’t re- sponsible for the awards accident. “Warren can be a bit paranoid,” the source noted, “with his politics and everything.”

Vanity Fair reported that during the elevator incident, the show’s stage manager “Gary Natoli . . . approached Beatty,” telling him that “security would like the envelopes.” But that Beatty shot back, “I’m holding onto them. I’ll give them to [‘Moonlight’ director] Barry Jenkins at an appropriate moment.”

Beatty and Faye Dunaway gave “La La Land” Best Picture when they were given a duplicate envelope for the Best Actress category. The best picture was actually “Moonlight.”

After the error, Beatty was seen in a tussle on- stage for the Best Pic envelope with PWC’s Brian

Cullinan — the accounting exec who handed him the wrong envelope in the first place — and the actor successfully had two envelopes as he walked off. Beatty carried them to an after-party, and was seen at the academy’s official Governor’s Ball explaining the snafu to execs from Lionsgate, which put out “La La Land.”

Beatty did not attend the vaunted Vanity Fair party, though Dunaway did, and was overheard saying, “I really [bleeped] that up,” Variety reported.

By 1 a.m. Monday, “Moonlight” distributor A24 posted an image of the Best Picture card, captioned, “It’s real, we got the proof.”