The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MAN ARRESTED AFTER ACTRESS’S AWARD WAS TAKEN
Usually getting robbed of an Oscar is a figurative act, not a literal one. But on Sunday night, police in Los Angeles arrested a man suspected of snatching Frances McDormand’s Oscar statue.
Police arrested Terry Bryant around 11:50 p.m. for grand theft, said LAPD spokeswoman Rosario Herrera. As of late morning in California, Bryant, 47, was still in police custody with his bail set at $20,000. Attorney information was not immediately available.
The Associated Press reported that the Oscar went missing during the Governors Ball, the official afterparty of the ceremony and where McDormand and other winners had their statuettes engraved with their names.
Bryant had a ticket to the event, Herrera said.
The award was eventually recovered and returned to McDormand, who won the Oscar for best actress for her role in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” She also gave the most rousing acceptance speech of the night, and asked all the women nominated for an award to stand in solidarity.
Word first broke about the bizarre incident when New York Times culture reporter Cara Buckley tweeted a photo of a man holding an Oscar, writing that security at the ball “are looking for this guy, who grabbed Frances McDormand’s Oscar and ran out with it. Wolfgang Puck’s photographer stopped him, got the Oscar back, and the
guy disappeared back into the ball. Apparently Frances has said to let him go.”
A man named Terry Bryant posted Facebook video of himself around 10:35 p.m. from the Governors Ball, holding an Oscar, kissing the award, telling people around him he won for music (“best producer”) and trying to get information about Jimmy Kimmel’s after-party.
“Look at it, baby, my team got this tonight! This is mine!” he says on the video. “We got it tonight, baby.”
“Congratulations!” those nearby yell. Someone mentions the Kimmel party, and he says, “Yes, thank you. So where’s the Jimmy Kimmel party at? I’m about to go to so many parties.”
“That’s your ticket to anything you want to go to!,” a woman says.
“I know,” he responds. “Academy Awards, baby,
for music! You know what, I can’t believe I got this.”
USA Today reported that McDormand was spotted crying outside of the event and then departing the Governors Ball with her husband, director Joel Coen.
“Somebody tried to steal my Oscar at the Governors Ball,” McDormand told producer Jason Blum as she entered the Vanity Fair party later that night, the Los Angeles Times reported. “Let me see someone try to pawn that!”
Hours later, McDormand’s representative confirmed that the award had been returned.
“After a brief time apart, Frances and her Oscar were happily reunited last night,” Halls said in an email to Variety. “They celebrated their reunion with a double cheeseburger from InN-Out.”