USA TODAY International Edition
Some of the best action is backstage
HOLLYWOOD – Two rubber bands and a heck of a grip. Those are the simple secrets of how this year’s Oscars telecast went off without a hitch Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre. In the wings of stage right, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Kimberly Bourdon keeps a laser focus on the stack of winner envelopes she’s holding, bound together in rubber bands.
The accountant has a specific process. Each time she hands an envelope to a celebrity presenter, Bourdon says: “Can you please confirm you are holding the ‘best (so and so)’ envelope?” Most quickly confirm, but in the final minutes, Warren Beatty, back for a best-picture redo, pauses.
“This is the best-picture envelope. Could you please confirm that?” Bourdon asks, proffering the black-andgold embossed envelope. Beatty looks down at it. “Are you sure?” he asks.
Forgive him some trepidation: Beatty isn’t taking any chances after last year’s massive fail, in which he and Faye Dunaway erroneously awarded best picture to La La Land instead of Moonlight after being handed the wrong envelope. PricewaterhouseCoopers has since made drastic changes: new reps in the wings, a third accountant in the control room and a no-phones policy for its staff.
With a verbal confirmation, Beatty and Dunaway take a familiar stroll onto the stage. But this time, The Shape of Water wins best picture without a hiccup. (Though director Guillermo del Toro checks his envelope, just in case.)
After the credits roll, Bourdon looks relieved. “Good! I feel good,” she says. Beatty calls the reparative experience “deeply moving.” A Hollywood ending, scripted to a T.
Other moments we witnessed:
Pre-show jitters, missing Meryl
Fifteen minutes before the show, host Jimmy Kimmel emerges from his dressing room to lead a chant with his team. “Let’s get it right this time!” they shout in unison. “Best show ever!”
A question of Meryl Streep’s location seems to terrify production. “We really need Meryl Streep,” a producer says into his headset. It’s relayed that “her people” say the best actress nominee (for The Post) is almost in her seat for the opening segment, during which Kimmel cuts to her.
Bustling halls, bathroom breaks
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who has slipped a black coat over her sparkling Givenchy dress, hits the green room with husband Yaron Varsano, who totes champagne to go.
Frances McDormand grabs her Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri co-star Sam Rockwell in a bear hug before fixing his bow tie. “Follow Sam (to the green room), and I’ll be right there,” she tells her husband, filmmaker Joel Coen. “Just don’t go anywhere without me.”
Last-minute touch-ups
As Greta Gerwig strolls to the stage, a makeup and hair artist approaches. “Can I get some of these flyaways?” As the artist sprays her crown, Gerwig swears they know each other. “I know. I worked with you on No Strings Attached,” the woman says. “Oh, right!” replies the Lady Bird director.
Her co-presenter, Laura Dern, walks up, and the two fall into conversation, pausing to make sure each other’s dresses look OK from all angles.
“We both need to remember this because we’re the same person: Don’t slouch,” Dern says. Gerwig nods. “We’re both so tall,” she says, straightening her posture.
The two weigh how to walk out on stage together. “What do you think, everybody? Like this?” Dern asks, polling the gathered crowd on whether to link arms or hold hands. The linked arms could make for awkward walking, perhaps. Holding hands it is. “We crowdsourced it,” Gerwig says with a grin.
Haddish cracks up McConaughey
In the wings, Girls Trip breakout star Tiffany Haddish prepares for her Oscars debut. “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it,” she sings. Matthew McConaughey comes back from presenting best film editing, and Haddish addresses him square on: “You did a good job. You read so well,” she says, putting on a motherly tone that makes him grin. “I’m very proud of you.”
She and Maya Rudolph are sliding into slippers and carrying pairs of heels, which will be part of their bit onstage. Haddish riffs on how her bare feet will go over on TV. “‘Do you see those bunions?’ ” she imagines audiences at home will say. “‘Do you see them corns?’ The foot fetish people will be all about it,” she says, cracking up the staff backstage.
Jitters, Jet Ski, BB-8 in a bag
In the moments before Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd and Annabella Sciorra take the stage for their Time’s Up segment, the trio link arms and share a quiet moment. After they present, Hayek looks relieved. “It’s over!” she says, exhaling.
Meanwhile, BB-8 arrives discreetly in two gray sacks. The adorable Star Wars ’bot is assembled stage-side.
Kimmel’s giant green Jet Ski, which sits just offstage, is the gag that keeps on giving. After winning best visual effects for Blade Runner 2049, John Nelson says he knows his long speech cost him the prize.
‘Thanks, bro!’
Emma Stone’s brother, Spencer, patiently holds his sister’s purse while Stone, last year’s best-actress winner (La La Land), presents best director to Guillermo del Toro. “Thanks, bro!” she says afterward, walking into the wings and taking her clutch back.
Celebrities back here support one another. After Nicole Kidman presents Jordan Peele with his best-original-screenplay Oscar for Get Out, she walks him backstage. “Quick, you’ve got to get back to your seat!” she says as photographers swarm.
After James Ivory’s win for adapting Call Me By Your Name’s screenplay, Chadwick Boseman and Margot Robbie pose with the 89-year-old backstage. Both give a helping hand: They wrap their arms around Ivory while the Black Panther star holds his Oscar and Robbie (I, Tonya) takes care of his cane.
Exhales all around
After the credits roll, no one leaves the stage. For more than 15 minutes, The Shape of Water cast celebrates. Beatty offers Bourdon kind words; Dunaway holds her hand before saying goodbye.
In the tunnels of the theater, Kimmel and his team celebrate, discussing how particular comic bits went. “That bit with Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster played very well,” he says.