The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Blundering moment as
Hollywood: Academy awards descends into farce with Best Picture error
These are the moments when the most prestigious night of the film industry calendar went severely offscript and the wrong winner of the best film was announcement.
The mix-up led to red faces all round on the night.
Now, American TV presenter Steve Harvey has urged Warren Beatty to call him following Sunday night’s epic Oscars blunder which saw the wrong winner being announced on stage.
Dick Tracy star Beatty and his Bonnie And Clyde co-star Faye Dunaway were embroiled in an embarrassing moment that will go down in Academy Awards history as they called out La La Land as the
“We’re investigating and deeply regret this occurred”
winner of the best picture category, when in fact Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight had won.
Harvey offered up his advice as he tweeted following the event, having been at the centre of a similar furore in 2015.
While hosting the finale of the Miss Universe pageant, Harvey mistakenly announced that Miss Colombia was the winner, when in fact Miss Philippines had won.
Responding to the Oscars moment, he tweeted: “Call me Warren Beatty. I can help you get through this! Oscars.”
Before that he poked fun at the evening’s controversial unfolding as he tweeted: “Good morning everybody! Went to sleep early last night. So . . . what I miss? Oscars.”
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel also referenced Harvey as he closed the ceremony, saying: “Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this.”
The official Miss Universe Twitter account offered the Academy some advice, tagging them on Twitter writing: “Have your people call our people – we know what to do. Oscars and Miss Universe.”
The accounting firm responsible has apologised in an official statement for the mix-up which occurred as a result of a duplicate set of winner cards. Accountancy firm PwC said they were “currently investigating how this could have happened”.
Director M Night Shyamalan, whose films are known for having a massive twist at the end, joked on Twitter that he had written the ending. He tagged Kimmel on Twitter joking: “We really got them.”
Social media exploded with another common theme: people asking if the results of the American elections could be recounted in case they had also been misread.
One viewer tweeted “I wish that happened on election night” while another, posted from a parody account of the House Of Cards character Frank Underwood, mused: “Hillary called. She wants Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway to review the ballots voters cast in Wisconsin and Michigan.”
“The Oscars just did the best impression of The Electoral College,” said another viewer.
Director Michael Moore said mistakes such as this were the reason a “booth review” should be instituted similar to what happens in the game of American football.