By now, nearly everyone in America, and most likely yourself, knows about the major flub that occurred during the presentation of the Academy Award for Best Picture last Sunday, in which Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty incorrectly revealed the winner to be musical La La Land rather than coming-of-age drama Moonlight. However, that was not the whole story.
Background
The 89th Academy Awards was televised on Sunday, February 26, 2017. Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was announced to be the event’s host. On January 24, 2017, the nominations were revealed. The Los Angeles-set ode to dreamers, La La Land, which follows actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), received 14 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Actress (Stone), and Best Actor (Gosling). In the days preceding the show, La La Land was widely favored to be the frontrunner due to its mass appeal to audiences and critics alike, box office success, and homages to the struggling actors of Los Angeles. Moonlight, a film spanning the childhood and adolescence of gay black youth in a poverty-stricken household, came in second with 8 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Barry Jenkins), Best Adapted Screenplay, and both Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Actress (Naomie Harris). Science-fiction film, Arrival, also received 8 nominations, while war epic Hacksaw Ridge, biographical drama Lion, and tear-jerking drama Manchester by the Sea all received 6.
The Show
The 89th Academy Awards proceeded with nearly no hiccups, as Jimmy Kimmel delivered burns and jokes to nearly every actor in the audiences, while Oscar winners were not afraid to take their shots at the current POTUS. A win by Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, who won Best Foreign Film for The Salesman, was probably the most notable incident, as although he was absent from the Dolby Theater, he wrote a heartfelt letter addressing his absence and thanks read by a family friend. Kimmel peppered some of his signature gags throughout, as he continued his beef with Matt Damon (the funniest was when Kimmel conducted the orchestra to cue Damon off the stage, although he was only presenting) and airing a special Oscars edition of “Mean Tweets”, where celebrities read brutal insults directed at them through the social media platform, Twitter.
The nominees of Best Original Song also added some musical flair to the event through their performances of their nominated tunes. Onto the awards, Manchester by the Sea grabbed two awards, including Best Actor for Casey Affleck, along with Hacksaw Ridge, which won Best Sound Mixing and Film Editing. In addition, Viola Davis won for her mesmerizing performance in the film adaptation of the play Fences, Zootopia snagged Best Animated Feature, and The Jungle Book received Best Visual Effects, among others. Moonlight escaped with three awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Ali, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the award that we’ll get to later. But La La Land was the real winner, running away with many technical categories along with Best Actress for Stone, Best Director for Chazelle, and Best Original Score.
However, it missed out on the big award of the night, the one I’ll talk about right now.
The Moment
February 26th, 2017 was the 50th anniversary of the landmark film Bonnie and Clyde. In commemoration, the Academy chose for Bonnie and Clyde themselves, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, to present the Academy Award for Best Picture. Dunaway and Beatty then rattled off all of the nominees, while brief trailers for each were displayed. Beatty then opened the envelope and stood bewildered for a good 7 seconds. However, the audience misinterpreted this as a joke and laughed along.
Beatty then gave Dunaway a look at the card. Dunaway then exclaimed La La Land, as the audience erupted in applause. Producers and recipients of the award Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, Fred Berger walked up on the stage to receive the award, accompanied by Gosling, Stone, Chazelle, John Legend, and every other audience member who worked in or starred in La La Land. Horowitz, Platt, and Berger then proceeded to give out their speeches, thanking all of their family members and whatnot. During the speeches, commotion was going on in the back, as it was slowly discovered that La La Land 
was, in fact, not the recipient, but Moonlight was instead. Berger, who gave the last speech, even addressed this bluntly and directly, saying, “We lost, by the way, but, you know…” as he left the microphone.
Horowitz, in a brave gesture, then stepped up to the mic, saying, “I’m sorry, no, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke. Come up here. This is not a joke. Moonlight has won Best Picture.” He then grabbed the envelope and showed it to the camera, as it, in fact, said Moonlight along with its producers. As everyone stood absolutely dumbfounded by the previous events, Kimmel tried to ease the tension by joking about Steve Harvey, who also infamously read the wrong name during the Miss Universe winner announcement. Beatty then explained himself, as he told the audience that the envelope said “Emma Stone, La La Land” and that he was confused what to say. Barry Jenkins and the other Moonlight producers then gave their speeches as the awards show ended in a thrilling, controversial fashion.
Aftermath
The chaos that followed the Best Picture fiasco was completely unprecedented. Many celebrities at the Oscars quickly weighed in on how everyone reacted and many critics brutally criticized the Oscars for allowing this colossal mistake. The first development is by Price Waterhouse Cooper, the accounting company that is responsible for manufacturing, safe-keeping, and distributing the envelopes to the presenters, publicly stated that they make two envelopes for each category, just in case one miraculously goes missing.
In relation to this statement, Emma Stone stated that she was holding her Best Actress envelope, which was the prior award, in her hand the entire duration of the Best Picture presentation. As the Best Actress in a Leading Role was also in Beatty’s hand, it is possible that he was holding the alternate copy. Speaking of Price Waterhouse Cooper, the two accountants that were tasked with giving out each envelope and ensuring a hiccup-free presentation, Brian Cullinan and Martha L. Ruiz have been fired from PWC. Cullinan was heavily criticized after the telecast for reportedly getting distracted by all of the celebrities surrounding him. Cullinan had posted pictures of Viola Davis, the envelope briefcase, and Emma Stone, mere minutes before the colossal mix-up and minutes after Stone’s Best Actress win.
The Academy then issued an apology that stated PWC has taken full responsibility for all of last night’s event. Nigel Currie, a British specialist with much industry experience, said in response to Cullinan and PWC, “They had a pretty simple job to do and messed it up spectacularly. Ruiz wasn’t completely out of the blue, as she was tasked with memorizing all of the winners and reacting quickly to any wrong answers. She obviously failed her job due to the very late reaction to the screw-up. They will be in deep crisis talks on how to deal with it.”
As for other reactions, many celebrities, such as previous Oscar hosts Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, and Jessica Chastain, voiced their complete disbelief, while media outlets such as Good Morning America, Screen Junkies, and Entertainment Weekly reported this gaffe in no time. The Miss Universe Twitter account even trolled the Oscars with a tweet referencing Harvey’s incident. Many celebrity insiders revealed their reactions to the chaos, such as Jordan Horowitz who named the situation to be “surreal”. Kimmel, before the chaos, was preparing to end the show with a joke next to Matt Damon. Kimmel planned to gloat in Damon’s face if Manchester by the Sea (a movie in which Damon was nominated for producing) lost out on Best Picture, which it was expected to do, in a manner similar to when Damon embarrassed Kimmel during the Emmys when Kimmel lost out on Outstanding Variety Talk Series. Luckily, Damon recognized the confusion and alerted Kimmel, who ran up to the stage to ease the tension and help present the proper winner. However, throughout all of the attention that was placed on the Best Picture fiasco, there were two more unnoticed controversies that occurred during the prestigious ceremony.
T
he first happened during the In Memoriam segment, when a slide in the slideshow was supposed to honor Australian costume designer Janet Patterson. While providing the correct name, the slide depicted a picture of well and alive Australian producer Jan Chapman. The other snafu was during a segment in which Kimmel surprised unsuspecting tourists with a walk through the Oscars. The man who led the bunch, known as Gary from Chicago, greeted many celebrities and even was able to hold Mahershala Ali’s Oscar for a photo. It was not until after the Oscars, however, that it was revealed that Gary was released from prison two days prior and it is a registered sex offender. All in all, the final 15 minutes of disarray will forever put a blemish on an otherwise well-hosted, hilarious, and heartwarming Academy Awards, one we won’t soon forget.
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