Trump on Oscars: ‘To end that way was sad’
U.S. President Donald Trump is giving the Academy Awards two thumbs down, calling the botched ending “sad.”
The president told Breitbart News the Academy Awards “focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end.” Pointing to the flubbed awarding of Moonlight as the Oscar-winning best picture after initially giving the prize to La La Land, Trump said, “to end that way was sad.”
The president was attending a Governors’ Ball at the White House for most of Sunday’s awards ceremony. The annual Oscars ceremony carried a political edge throughout the evening, with many winners, presenters and host Jimmy Kimmel taking digs at Trump.
Trump said the ceremony“didn’ t feel like a very glamorous evening” and “was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars.”
The 32.9 million viewers tuning into Sunday’s awards represented a drop-off of more than a million from last year and Oscar’s smallest audience since 2008.
Still wondering how the night’s big error was made? A look at how the Academy Awards’ winners envelopes are handled before being opened live onstage:
The consulting firm PwC, formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers, tabulates the winners based on ballots cast by the academy’s 6,687 voting members. Unlike the nominations, which rely on a branch-specific, preferential-voting system, winners are chosen by popular vote.
Two accountants are tasked with bringing the final results, inside sealed envelopes, to the Oscars ceremony. They are the people carrying briefcases on the red carpet, flanked by police protection. Each briefcase contains an identical set of envelopes for the show’s 24 categories. The accountants also memorize the winners.
The two accountants are ostensibly the only people who know the winners before they are announced live on TV.
During the telecast, the two briefcase-toting accountants are stationed in the Dolby Theatre wings, one stage left and one stage right.
Most presenters enter stage right. They come backstage a few minutes ahead of time, and the accountant hands them their category’s envelope just before they walk onstage. The sealed envelope with the winner’s name inside is opened live onstage.
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway entered stage right, where PwC rep Brian Cullinan handed them the errant envelope.
The previous award, best actress, was presented by Leonardo DiCaprio, who entered stage left. PwC representative Martha Ruiz handed him the envelope for the correct category.
A duplicate, unopened envelope for best actress remained stage right, and apparently ended up in the hands of Beatty and Dunaway.