232696

Entertainment  

Oscar tweet smoking gun?

Moments before he handed out the wrong envelope in one of the worst gaffes in Academy Award history, PwC accountant Brian Cullinan tweeted a behind-the-scenes photo of winner Emma Stone holding her statuette. "Best Actress Emma Stone backstage!" the tweet read.

It's one potential clue in the whodunit that Sunday's ceremony became after presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty mistakenly proclaimed "La La Land" as the best-picture winner instead of "Moonlight."

Cullinan was one of two accountants for PwC, formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers, tasked with doling out the envelopes containing winners' names to the presenters. But the envelope that Cullinan gave to Dunaway and Beatty was a duplicate of the previously announced win for Stone, not for best picture.

The photo tweeted by Cullinan, which was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal, would have been taken in the minutes leading up to the top picture award — raising the question of whether the accountant was distracted from the task at hand. Although the tweet had been deleted from the social media site, a copy of it was kept by Google and available through a cache page.

A PwC representative declined comment Monday on whether Cullinan's social-media use might have contributed to the fiasco that launched countless punchlines, memes and a probe of what went wrong.

The embarrassing episode stepped squarely on what should have been a night of high-fiving for the academy. After last year's awards were clouded by the #OscarsSoWhite protests, diversity ruled Sunday as actors Viola Davis ("Fences") and Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") were among the people of colour claiming trophies, while "Moonlight" focused on African-American characters.

Instead, the academy, PwC and the media were scrambling to figure out how such a monumental goof could have occurred after decades of following essentially the same formula.

PwC has handled Oscar balloting for 82 years, was quick to apologize to the movies involved, Beatty, Dunaway and viewers, but has yet to fully explain what happened.

"The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected," it said in a statement. "We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred."

On paper, the process seems straight-forward. As per protocol, Brian Cullinan and PwC colleague Martha Ruiz toted briefcases to the awards via the red carpet, each holding an identical set of envelopes for the show's 24 categories. The accountants also memorize the winners.

During the telecast, the accountants were stationed in the Dolby Theatre wings, one stage left and one stage right, to give presenters their category's envelope before they went on stage. Most presenters entered stage right, where Cullinan was posted and where he handed Beatty and Dunaway the errant envelope.

Yet the previous award, best actress, had been presented by Leonardo DiCaprio, who entered stage left and received the envelope from Ruiz. That left a duplicate, unopened envelope for best actress at stage right.



More Entertainment News



Movie Listings

221330




227730
RECENT STORIES
231998




231490
Castanet Proud Member of RTNDA Canada
232548