Oscars pair get guards for threats
THE two accountants to blame for the Oscars bungle have been given bodyguards after getting death threats on social media.
Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said security has been beefed up at the residences of Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz after Sunday’s mistake in Hollywood.
Celebrity website TMZ.com said the pair feared for their lives.
The error briefly saw La La Land named best picture instead of Moonlight after the wrong winners’ envelope was handed over.
Neither will be employed to do the Oscars job again.
PwC said Cullinan and Ruiz had been given protection after their home addresses and photos of their families were published. SHE is etched in most people’s minds as Harry Potter’s know-it-all sidekick Hermione Granger but Emma Watson is making a bid to be a magical Hollywood A-lister in her own right.
The actress stars in the hugely anticipated live-action version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as Belle, opposite Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens.
She turned down the female lead in La La Land, which made actress Emma Stone, 28, an Oscar winner last weekend, and may be hoping the decision wasn’t a huge mistake for her career.
For Emma, 26, much hinges on Beauty and the Beast, which had its Los Angeles premiere on Thursday.
Wearing a plunging black Oscar de la Renta jumpsuit, with daring back design, she was the belle of that ball.
The hype surrounding the £130million film is at fever pitch, with the teaser trailer breaking a world record for most views and John Legend and Ariana Grande singing on the soundtrack.
The signs are encouraging for Emma, with talk of a great performance, but as the March 17 release date looms, she is facing an online backlash after posing in a revealing crochet cape in a photo shoot for glossy magazine Vanity Fair, exposing her under-boob.
It prompted many to throw Emma’s feminist stance in her face and highlighted her dilemma as she attempts to throw off for her child star past.
Throughout filming the eight Potter movies, she was barred from cutting her hair, wearing heavy make-up, piercing her ears and getting a tan. So maybe she is just keen to experiment?
Emma, who was born in Paris and brought up in Oxfordshire, took a sabbatical from acting to study feminist literature and is a UN Women’s goodwill ambassador, crusading for the HeForShe campaign promoting gender equality.
For all her efforts in using her status to highlight serious issues, rather than flogging lip gloss, she has been mocked for being a privileged white female.
In a recent interview Emma said: “There is a level of criticism that comes with being an actress and a public figure, which I expect, but once you take a stance on something like feminism, that’s a completely different ball game. There were a couple of days when I just
If it takes 5 years, it takes 5 years. If it takes more, I’m here for the long haul EMMA WATSON
didn’t want to come out from under the duvet.
“At first, I wasn’t sure if I should allow myself to be upset by it but then I realised I needed to give myself 24 hours to sulk and then move forward.”
She added: “I’m no expert, and when people push me into a corner of ‘here’s Emma Watson to lecture you on feminism’, it’s uncomfortable because I am aware I have a long way to go.”
Thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, which she joined aged 10, she is estimated to be worth £57million. She once confessed: “I have way too much money to know what to do with.”
Emma has proved she is ambitious, saying: “‘I just want to keep making films that are on the same level and quality of Harry Potter – but not necessarily with the same budgets, or fan base.”
The fans who follow Emma will be part of the appeal in casting her in a movie, but her billing alone cannot guarantee the success of a movie.
Her 2014 biblical epic Noah was a flop. The film grossed £82million in the US on a £101million budget, while last year’s thriller The Colony pulled in a