After dragging on for an eternity, the 89th Academy Awards gave us an M. Night Shyamalan-worthy ending when La La Land was incorrectly announced as the Best Picture winner — a prize that was actually intended for Moonlight.
The ordeal made for a live television trainwreck, with the La La Land producers cutting their speeches short to announce the real winners (insisting "This isn't a joke"), followed by bewildered presenter Warren Beatty returning to the microphone to explain that when he opened the envelope, Emma Stone's name was on the card (despite the fact that she had already been awarded Best Actress for La La Land).
Moonlight director Barry Jenkins and his crew eventually got their much-deserved few minutes in the spotlight, but now PricewaterhouseCoopers has stepped up to make a speech of its own.
The firm, responsible for handling the winners envelopes has issued a formal apology to all involved with the Moonlight mix-up. It reads:
We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
See the full, corrected list of 2017 Oscar winners here. Watch the awards mix-up below.
Update (02/27, 3:45 p.m. EST): TMZ has named the culprit in the envelope scandal. Brian Cullinan has been an accountant with Pricewaterhouse Cooper for 30 years, and he was tasked with handing Mr. Beatty the Best Picture envelope. He had been instructed to discard the Best Actress envelope prior to the announcement, but handed it to Beatty instead. Some speculate that Cullinan had been distracted by social media, though he's since deleted all the posts he made throughout the ceremony.
The ordeal made for a live television trainwreck, with the La La Land producers cutting their speeches short to announce the real winners (insisting "This isn't a joke"), followed by bewildered presenter Warren Beatty returning to the microphone to explain that when he opened the envelope, Emma Stone's name was on the card (despite the fact that she had already been awarded Best Actress for La La Land).
Moonlight director Barry Jenkins and his crew eventually got their much-deserved few minutes in the spotlight, but now PricewaterhouseCoopers has stepped up to make a speech of its own.
The firm, responsible for handling the winners envelopes has issued a formal apology to all involved with the Moonlight mix-up. It reads:
We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
See the full, corrected list of 2017 Oscar winners here. Watch the awards mix-up below.
Update (02/27, 3:45 p.m. EST): TMZ has named the culprit in the envelope scandal. Brian Cullinan has been an accountant with Pricewaterhouse Cooper for 30 years, and he was tasked with handing Mr. Beatty the Best Picture envelope. He had been instructed to discard the Best Actress envelope prior to the announcement, but handed it to Beatty instead. Some speculate that Cullinan had been distracted by social media, though he's since deleted all the posts he made throughout the ceremony.
