Both accountants get Oscars blame
LOS ANGELES — After Wednesday’s news that the two Price-water-house-Coopers representatives responsible for Sunday’s best picture gaffe would not be working future Oscar ceremonies, some questioned what, if anything, was Martha Ruiz’s role in the matter.
While much of the focus on Sunday’s backstage blunder focused on Ruiz’s colleague Brian Cullinan, the PwC employee responsible for handing the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty, it was less clear why Ruiz was also held accountable for the mistake.
But Oscars stage manager Gary Natoli recently clarified the failure of both PwC accountants in an interview with the Wrap.
As Natoli explained, both Ruiz and Cullinan were supposed to have memorized all winners for the Oscars categories. And, if the wrong name were announced, they were aware that the appropriate response was to immediately rectify the situation.
That’s not what happened Sunday night when the worstcase scenario came to pass.
“I was in the wings stage left with Jimmy (Kimmel) when they announced ‘La La Land.’ We watched for about 10 more seconds, and during that entire time Martha (Ruiz) was no more than 5 feet away from us,” Natoli said. “When ‘La La Land’ was announced, she did not try to get my attention; she did not say anything.”
Kimmel and Natoli then headed to the audience to prep for Kimmel’s final bit of the night, which involved Matt Damon. It wasn’t until the “La La Land” producers had begun delivering their speeches that anyone mentioned that there might be a problem, at which point Natoli gave orders for Ruiz to open her envelope.
“She was standing there with the envelope in her hand, very low-key,” Natoli said of Ruiz. “And (fellow stage manager) John Esposito said that Brian was very low-key too, no urgency. But we had Martha open the envelope, and it said ‘Moonlight.’ ”
Natoli further detailed how even after discovering the error, the PwC representatives had to be forced into action. More than two minutes elapsed before they corrected course.
Though the details were previously nebulous, Natoli’s account is in line with a statement PwC gave the Los Angeles Times on Monday, saying, “Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.”
Despite being removed from future Oscars duty, both Cullinan and Ruiz will remain partners at PwC. According to NBC News, the pair have been issued security protection by their employer after personal information and photos of their homes had been posted online.