Before we settle in for the Oscars recap and all of the fashion, let’s figure out what the hell happened with the Best Picture screwup, because good God that was crazy. As I covered last night, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunway presented the Best Picture Oscar… to La La Land. Warren looked noticeably confused when he opened the envelope, which he passed to Faye and then Faye said “La La Land.” But people have been analyzing this like the Zapruder film, and apparently Beatty always had the wrong card – he had a second Best Actress card:
"Actress in a Leading Role."
Don't blame #WarrenBeatty #Oscars #BestPicture pic.twitter.com/hpVadk1N9n— Ryan Lavender (@RealLavender) February 27, 2017
Here’s the video of Beatty looking confused:
WATCH: The moment Warren Beatty gave what appeared to be a second look while opening the Best Picture envelope. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/SJkQYEu75k
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017
Beatty told reporters after the Oscars: “I don’t know anything … I don’t think anyone knows. I’ve asked and I haven’t got an answer. I read the card that was in the envelope. I read it but I didn’t say La La Land. I thought, ‘This is very strange because it says Best Actress on the card.’ And I felt that maybe there was some sort of misprint. As planned, I gave it to Faye. And that’s all I want to say on the subject.” Meanwhile, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has taken the blame and issued a statement:
“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.”
People Magazine has some background on what was happening in the chaos. When the La La Land people came on stage and were making their speeches, someone in the back shouted, “Oh my God, it’s not La La Land, it’s Moonlight!” Maybe someone backstage? Warren Beatty wandered off-stage and one person said, “Warren Beatty won’t give up the envelope! Security is coming.” Apparently, there are a few different cards printed for each winner, and it’s not like Emma Stone put down her Best Actress envelope and Beatty picked up the wrong one – Emma told reporters that she had her envelope and card on her since she won, so Beatty was clearly given the wrong card.
Naomie Harris reportedly thought the whole thing was a prank, but director Barry Jenkins was pretty Zen about the whole thing. He told reporters backstage:
“No explanation. Things just happen… I think all the movies that were nominated were worthy, so I accepted the results, I applauded like everyone else. I noticed the commotion that was happening, and I thought something strange had occurred. I’m sure everybody saw my face, but I was speechless with the result. I had always watched the Academy Awards and I had never seen that happen before. It made a very special feeling even more special, but not in a way I expected. I will say, the folks from La La Land were so gracious. I can’t imagine being in their position and having to do that. We spent a lot of time together over the last six months, and I can’t imagine being in their position. It’s why I was speechless — I wasn’t speechless because I won, I was so speechless that they had to do that.”
It really was extraordinary that in the moment, in that chaos, La La producer Jordan Horowitz had the presence and grace to go to the microphone and call up Moonlight and say it would be his honor to give them the Oscar. And now Jenkins has a weird story about Warren Beatty too – go here to read more.
WATCH: Moment where crew/cast of 'La La Land' realizes a mistake had been made and 'Moonlight' actually won Best Picture. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/WCCopwsJ66
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
How dare they take the attention away from the Trump jokes.
Yes, really, that was my first thought too LOL. Wasn’t it awesome?
I loved actor Bradley Whitford’s quick-witted response on Twitter:
“So Hillary won?!?!?!?!!!!”
If only…
It’s not his fault he got the wrong card, but I do wish he’d just announced that fact and asked for the right card to be brought out. You can see that he immediately saw it was the wrong card (within a second of glancing at it he’s checking the envelope for the right card) and he tried to stall. I guess he hoped someone would realise what was happening and fix it for him, but the producers aren’t mind readers, and he really needed to just say ‘sorry, wrong card’.
It was a crazy chain reaction, a perfect storm of little screw ups, and I guess no one could believe it was happening so they were reacting slowly. However, the accountants are ultimately to blame. The freaking ENVELOPE has the category written on it and they still handed out the wrong one to Beatty. They clearly didn’t even look at it or they would have noticed. Maybe they should just have one set, and one accountant from now on. It’s not like anyone cares if all the presenters come out from one side!
That was not the the time to ad lib or draw conclusions.
Still, I’m glad Warren got a chance to explain himself, although it took away from the Moonlight speeches. He shouldn’t suffer the same fate as Hume Cronin, who deliberately said the wrong name at the Daytime Emmys as a ‘joke’. Hume was obliterated, rightfully so.
To be fair, Dunaway read out the wrong name, not Beatty. He should have clicked sooner but he tried to stall instead. The confusion snowballed because Stone won and LLL was the odds on fave to win BP …. no other combination would have resulted in such a mess.
If they’d just given Huppert the Oscar …
I realize that Faye announced LLL, but Warren is the one catching hell. Mind you, stopping the proceedings wouldn’t have been out of the question.
Since this has never happened before, WB didn’t have a frame of reference or back-up plan for what to do in the event of a colossal screw up. I’m pretty sure I would have been completely frozen while my brain struggled to comprehend and react in such a strange moment.
The man is 79 years old. I can imagine his split second thought process went;
“this says Best Actress and I’m presenting Best Picture but surely nobody backstage would blunder this bad. Maybe I’m wrong and I’m presenting Best Actress. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. Maybe somebody already explained this to me and I’m forgetting. Can I really trust myself now? Surely they would have interrupted me by now. Can I say theres a problem right here on live tv? Or will they just laugh at an old fool? Maybe Faye will know whats happening.”
I’m not mad at Warren. I’m mad at the backstage handlers. I firmly believe this was intentional. Its not a coincidence that they replaced this card with that of La La Land. Even now that its been corrected nobody is talking about Moonlight which was the goal.. To steal attention from a deserving black film because white mediocrity must prevail at all costs in Trump America.
Nah, it wasn’t a backstage conspiracy, that’s silly. It was just plain, simple, boring incompetence. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before because two sets is asking for trouble. And honestly, Moonlight is getting a more attention now than it would have if there hadn’t been such headline-making drama.
I agree it’s what Warrens chain of thought probably was. I don think it was a conspiracy though, just a screw-up. People in general these days are seeming less and less competent at their jobs.
Sorry, I’m not buying a conspiracy theory. This is just good old fashioned incompetence. PricewaterhouseeCoopers needs to be replaced.
I didn’t know PWC was the firm who holds this account. If that weren’t the case, I’d put on my tinfoil hat and say you might be right. But this is a prestige account for them, one that most likely pays in PR rather than cold hard cash. Now they look incompetent as f*ck. You are, at that point, only responsible to make sure the right envelope goes to the presenter. That is not a hard job. If in my firm an assistant wasn’t able to handle a job like this, he/she would be out of a job rather quickly. PR disasters are the worst.
I assume the reason the award is printed on the exterior of the envelop is to ensure this very thing does not happen. This was just piss poor work from PWC.
Never blame blame malice by what can be explained by incompetence.
No, I don’t think it was intentional. Moonlight did miss out on hearing their name called properly, but LaLaLand was humiliated. Speeches were already made, stars on the stage…then having to give back the awards and go back to your seat? The incompetence hurt both LaLa’s team and Moonlight’s. It makes no sense that this was set up to just hurt Moonlight, because it also came at LaLa’s expense.
Unless he was trying to think in his mind if Emma Stone was the producer of the movie.
Good thinking! I didnt think of that possibility.
That’s what I thought too. He was like “Maybe she’s a producer?”. Plus he was in front of a huge room and on live TV giving out the biggest award. I would doubt myself too if I thought I read the wrong thing. I think he was hoping Faye would see it too and confirm what he was seeing.
Faye announced it because Warren handed her the card like it was a hot potato.
The plan was always for Faye to announce the winner. That is why she seemed so annoyed he was delaying.
I’m not going to put the screw up on Beatty or Dunaway. BUT, as much as he was looking around – I mean he leaned back and looked PAST Dunaway into the wings – we knew something was not right. Why not just say into the mike so everyone can hear, “I think this is the wrong envelope. Can someone in charge of this stuff come out and check.” BOOM. Crisis averted. What is so scary about saying someone else gave you the wrong thing? Don’t just look around silently, or worse read whatever is there whether or not it makes sense. I do blame Gramps and Grammy for not stopping to deal with what was obviously weird and just pushing through to get done.
Forgot to add: My s-i-l, who is super very into the Oscars, turned off the tv in disgust after La La Land was announced. I texted her after the mixup was resolved “WTF. Are you screaming?” (in happiness, cause she was really pulling for Moonlight). And then I was like, “what! you don’t even know what just happened?!” She was so pissed about the mix up, about missing it, everything. I told her take a page from sportsball fans: never turn off the tv before the game is over, guaranteed something will happen and you’ll miss it.
@derpshooter – My husband did the same thing! I told him this morning about it and he was like WHAT! I turned it off as soon as they said LLL.
Maybe he didn’t want to look stupid or be called “old and senile” if the envelope was in fact correct? He could have been wondering if she was in fact a producer on the movie. Or its possible he wondered if he made a mistake and was supposed to be announcing Best Actress. I mean who knows. I think he handed it to Faye hoping she would either confirm it was a mistake/know what to do. She probably didn’t look to much at and said La La Land, cause that’s the name she saw.
Everyone from Warren to Barry Jenkins to the LA LA Land producers handled it as gracious as possible I wish fans would too. It was the mistake of whomever handed Warren and Faye the wrong envelope.
Dude, I’ve had so many moments in life where, if I’d had a couple minutes apart from what was happening, my “duh!” would’ve kicked in, and I would’ve, cool as a cucumber, taken the right steps, and said the right thing, and come out smelling like roses.
“in the moment” syndrome is something that catches all of us once in a while. Beatty didn’t know what to do right away – it happens. I think he was very conscious of it afterwards, and desperate to make sure no one pinned it on old age.
And the man is almost 80. My dad is nearing that number and while he’s generally still pretty sharp, he goes into a haze when something completely unexpected happens.
I had a moment like that at my bff’s wedding. I was supposed to light a frickin’ candle in church but since the environment was so foreign to me (and I expected to be struck my lightning at any moment), I froze because I realized I wasn’t tall enough to reach the damn thing. I just stood there until the best man took the thing from me and did it. And it wasn’t in front of that many people.
YES!!!!
He SAW it was for Best Actress. He needed to go off stage and confirm.
Not shrug off the responsibility to poor FAye who had no clue at all.
COWARD!!
I agree with this. A similar thing happened at the Daytime Emmy’s in 2013 when Aisha Tyler got the wrong envelope. She opened it up and instantly noticed it was not correct and joked about it until they gave her the right one. But yeah, not his fault so congrats to Moonlight. It certainly made for an unforgettable Oscar moment.
I’m glad that they have released that statement. I personally hated all the speculations going on here last night, like how Warren might be losing it or how he might have dementia or is starting to get senile. I find it rude to speculate and comment on a person’s mental state of being.
Also, favorite tweet from last night: Ms Universe to Oscars: Have your people call our people. We know what to do. 😂😂😂
I agree with you. So many of us talk about agiest Hollywood but some are so quick to blame it on an elderly actor by saying it’s because of his age and he’s losing it. Beatty didn’t even read the name, Faye did. He handed it to her to see if this was correct. It was the people behind the Academy’s fault. Beatty did the best that he could do, there’s no need to talk about what he should have done.
As for the Academy, somebody’s getting fired.
He might be ‘old’ but I’m sure he can read. Some poor worker will lose their job over this.
Totally not his fault but Moonlight was robbed of its moment and it was a total clusterf**k. I feel sorry for anybody involved.
@paolanqar: Yeah, I felt so bad for the Moonlight folks not being able to just enjoy and celebrate but feeling they had to modulate their emotions to be sensitive to the people who were told they won but actually hadn’t. 🙁 That sucks. I hope all the LLL and Moonlight people went out and got drunk together and totally dragged the Academy, the envelope people, and PriceWaterhouthiscompany’snameistoodamnlong especially.
At least this mistake got sorted. The In Memoriam video showed the wrong person! Costume designer Janet Patterson who had multiple Oscar nominations died last year and they put up a photo of her friend, Jan Chapman who is a. a producer and b. NOT DEAD. They looked nothing alike. Her friend is quite upset, as you can imagine. What a bunch of amateurs…
That’s really awful.
Oh My God. Wow that is insane.
What in the actual eff?!?! Let me tell you, I stayed up all night watching this and when beatty said La La Land, I was so pissed that I just turned off the TV and went to bed. I assumed the pause was just beatty being old and senile. Going to bed I was all “how could La LA be considered a best picture?! They should be ashamed!” But it was Moonlight!!!! YEAH!!!!!!! Hella awkward though…. poor Barry.
If Warren Beatty were senile, I highly doubt that his sister Shirley and wife Annette would let him be dragged out for awards shows.
Warren is perfectly fine, as shown when he was doing press for Rules Don’t Apply. Whoever started that “losing it” chatter last night must have the same sources as trump, the “I heard….” sources.
I’m sure is not senile.. and even if he was he would still be able to read a name on a card.
Warren did finish just directing a movie too so I doubt his mental capabilities are diminished. This incident proves nothing in that regard. It really could have happened to anyone, and honestly I am surprised he was that attuned to slow it down. Seriously, if you are given an envelope you are told is the winner wouldn’t you just read it like Faye did. They rarely read the names only the winning picture then the voice over comes on with the names. FYI for the new accounting firm next year, drop the two envelope thing that was an accident waiting to happen, and I would not make it reverse type on the outside of the envelope. Common knowledge from print people it is harder to read reverse type and obviously your employee had an issue when they handed it to Warren. Yes it looked beautiful, but it is more important that it is extremely legible. They should go back to white envelopes black type.
This was me too!!! I was so pissed I changed the channel and now I wake up to this!!!!
Mistakes happen. Yet, the presenter should be given the correct envelope so they don’t have to be confused onstage, in front of a live audience.
If Warren held on to the envelope backstage, I don’t blame him. The envelope exterior was the evidence; otherwise, he might have been the scapegoat.
i honest thought that the guy was pulling an Adele, when he said “No wait Moonlight won we lost”
but he was actually pulling a Steve Harvey (well okay not him. not Warren either) a half Steve. but Steve so sleazy it made my finger itch just to type his name.
so much mess in the Oscars!
‘i honest thought that the guy was pulling an Adele, when he said “No wait Moonlight won we lost”’
for a split second yes, but the producer who spoke looked way too serious and pissed off, not just graciously acknowledging another film deserved it.
He looked incredibly mad, like he wanted to chew poor WB’s head off.
Yeah, the best part was how he snatched the card out of WB hand so viciously that Warren stood there stunned with his hand still up in the air. And yet Jordan Horowitz is regarded a saintly hero. Nope, he’s a total a$$hole.
Of course Jordan Horowitz was mad. He had just been embarrassed in front the entire industry and on live TV. What I can’t figure out is why Berger started his acceptance speech. He knew there had been a mistake by that point.
To be fair: warren didn’t read out the wrong winner-Faye did. He was clearly looking at the card and saw that it was incorrect. He handed it to Faye to confirm and she just read it out as she thought he was doing a bit and wasn’t paying attention.
Not sure why warren is getting all the flack for this.
Agreed. I think he was trying to telegraph to her and instead she didn’t read it closely.
you could tell he was mortified.
I don’t get why everyone is blaming Warren. 1) he was given the incorrect envelope. He had the second best actress envelope instead of the correct one. 2) he wasn’t even the one who read the name, it was Faye. He read it, paused, because it didn’t make sense, showed it to Faye and she was the one who read it out loud.
It was pretty astute of him to both show the card to the camera while on stage and then not to show it personally to anyone until Jenkins saw it first. Jenkins said it made him feel better, but, since internet rage is ragey I expect the blame and paranoia to continue for another day.
Yeah, that was a gentlemanly thing to do. Props.
Giving the sh-tstorm of speculation and conspiracy theories that ensued, he was very savvy to do that.
I’m so sorry he’s getting dragged for this still when he did nothing wrong.
He probably shouldn’t have shown it to Faye because she was probably oblivious of the mistake and went along reading the name.
yeah, really.
Yeah that was unfortunate but of course I don’t blame her either. But it’s clear Warren knew something was amiss as he looked at the card and was understandably kind of stunned that such a mixup was in progress. Don’t like people insinuating Warren is old and therefore in some kind of dementia fog either, nothing to suggest dude is not compos mentis.
While It’s clearly not Warren’s fault but someone’s getting fired for this. Details matter.
Is anyone else bothered by how accusatory Emma was toward Warren in the press room? She was like, “I’m not trying to start shit …” but if that’s the case, why did she feel the need to say she had her best actress card? (And it doesn’t matter that she had it, because there are two envelopes/cards). Her statement definitely helped fuel for the conspiracy theorists …
I’m sooo happy that Moonlight ended up winning, but a bit disappointed that their moment was stolen from them. We should be talking about how groundbreaking it is that a film written, directed by, and starring POC, about a gay black man, won best picture, but instead the conversation is about LLL being awarded the trophy first.
I did notice that and didn’t really like it , but afterward thought she might want to make it clear that she didn’t leave her card behind, so “Don’t blame me, guys.”
YES! Ugh, I found that so rude. I thought it was fake when I first saw it on twitter (as a written statement, not a clip or anything) but then I saw it was pointed by a guy from EW so it was probably real. Not the best statement from her for sure.
What’s really funny is, I was on wikipedia just before the Best picture award was given and someone had already changed the entry for Best Picture from “nominated” to “won” (when looking at the page “List of accolades won by La La Land”) nearly 10 minutes before it was actually announced.
I took it as Emma defending the validity of her Best actress win? Because once it was pointed out that it was a mixed up in envelopes my first thought was well maybe Emma didn’t win the best actress award. IDK.
But I think the first instinct was to blame Warren for being a senile old man. My hats off to him that he held on to that envelope to show Barry Jenkins. Jenkins to me was the most important person that needed to know his win was fair and square. F–the producers.
It was a crazy and confusing moment. I don’t expect people to be at their best when they’ve just suffered shock and embarrassment.
EXTREMELY! (All caps!!!!) What was with that? It was so unnecessary and petty. No one was accusing or blaming Emma of anything. Her saying she didnt “want to start anything” was the equivalent of “no offense, but…” She was throwing Warren under the bus by questioning his credibility and honesty. And she repeated the same sentiment in other interviews.
I loved La La Land and formerly really liked Emma Stone, but now I’ve completely soured on her (I also don’t believe she deserved best actress). Her eagerness to jump into the fray to cast doubt on others says a lot to me about who she really is.
@Aysla, “Her eagerness to jump into the fray to cast doubt on others says a lot to me about who she really is.” I agree with you 100%. I also found her praise of Moonlight to be so OTT, it almost seemed sarcastic/insulting. I’d normally agree with anyone who praised Moonlight, as I think it’s an extraordinary film and I’m so happy it won best picture, but something about her delivery, and her proclaiming it’s the greatest film of all time … I just don’t find her to be very genuine.
Yes, I was not happy with what Emma Stone was saying back stage about Warren Beatty nor did I like the way the envelope was snatched out of his hand. He was treated disrespectfully and it wasn’t right. I understand that the LLL people were disappointed but there was a better way to handle it and it wasn’t done.
My initial reaction to the producer (I think his name is Jordan) quickly taking the card away from Warren was that he was being a jackass, but watching it again, I think he was trying to snatch the card before Jimmy Kimmel got it and tried to be jokey, which would have just led to more confusion. I think he was trying to bring some order back to the chaotic stage by saying straight up, “Moonlight, you won,” and showing the proof to the audience.
People were suggesting that she did something “wrong” with her card, so that it ended up with Warren. She was just defending herself, saying that she had it after she won (so no, she didn’t give it to Warren).
I think she (like most people) didn’t realize they have 2 sets of cards. She probably just wanted to share her side of story so she didn’t get left with the blame.
The way in which it was handled wasn’t that great – there was one guy with a headset who was going around in the background snatching the envelopes from people and then there was the La La Land producer who went up and gave a speech anyway even thou he knew they didn’t win. Kimmel should have taken the mic at the beginning and explained the situation, instead it was left to that La La Land producer (Jordan?) to clarify the on stage confusion and announce the real winner. Everyone seemed to be standing around like ‘WTF?!?!’.
Thou poor Warren Beaty he tried to take control and correct it but there were just too many people fussing around. The way the card was snatched out of his hand was rude and Kimmels lame jokes didn’t help.
It was a stressful situation. I don’t think he meant to be rude when he grabbed the enevelope out of Warren’s hand. I think he just wanted to clearly show people that Moonlight did in fact win. Because he had already said a couple times “I’m not joking”.
Yeah, props for the LLL folks trying to be gracious to the Moonlight folks, but that snatch was offside. I mean, I’m sure he was struggling for control, but he is not 3 years old. “We don’t grab, baby! It’s not nice!” I’m sure his mom said it as much as I do to my 3 year old.
Jordan Horowitz was in the middle of an extremely confusing, embarrassing, and disappointing situation. In the heat of the moment he grabbed the card more forcefully than intended, but I’m cutting him some slack. I would have burst into tears and run from the stage.
I don’t think the snatch was anything aimed at Warren Beatty – it was an urgent move to show that Moonlight was the winner.
I agree Layla. He snatched it to show it. I saw urgency not anger. Then he graciously handed over the Oscar to Moonlight.
I feel so bad for Warren.. you could tell he knew something was wrong and was very confused. I wish he just said ” I think something is wrong. I think I have the wrong envelope.” But in the moment he probably felt like he couldn’t say anything.
With that said I’m so happy Moonlight won!!
Congrats to everyone involved! ❤️
Jordan Horowitz was every White Ally RECTIFYING LOUD AND CLEAR LOL, god bless him for trying to get all these people together STAT cause Honestly Warren Beatty crocheting about made me and my sister scream at the TV like GET OFF AND GO AWAY YOU ARE EATING INTO THE WINNER’S SPEECH GAAAHH!(&*@!782723
Oops! Mistakes happen. Like the wrong winner of Miss Universe or Metallica being played as Megadeth goes up to get their Grammy.
I got bored of unfollowing people on tumblr who were celebrating Moonlight’s victory mostly by trashing La La Land’s “nasty ass empty white hands” (that’s a real thing someone’s written). Man, they can be vicious in there. And as I previously said, many kudos to both movie’s crews, who handled the situation perfectly, given the circumstances.
Humans are not perfect.We make mistakes.
Despite everyone blaming Warren for this clusterf**k, he didn’t blame the back staff for giving him the wrong envelope. He didn’t play the blame game.
What a true gentlemen.
Was is just me or was the Red Carpet/Show/ After Party coverage interminable? Too damn long and sorry, but also pretty damn boring. It’s a disservice to the worthy winners.
The mix-up was like getting an elbow in the ribs after you dozed off.
Really?
I thought Jordan Horowitz was totally rude and dismissive to Warren Beatty. Did you see how he just snatched it out of his hand? Rude!!!
Seriously, how about asking, Jordan- you forget your manners on the red carpet? You could tell he was angry, and rightfully so, but damn if the true colors didn’t come out with that snatch. What a punk!
I’m glad he didn’t win, trying to come off like he’s so high and mighty goody, goody ready to hand over the win, forgot his manners when he swiped the card out of a legendary actor’s hand.
Warren showed in many ways how much of a true gentleman he is.
Yeah. I know it was an unprecedented effed up situation but don’t take it out on good old Warren.
That’s what I was saying above, it was not nice at all.
I agree. Jordon should apologize actually to Beatty…privately. I think the initial reaction was that Beatty had fumbled. Jordon appeared angry at him. It was a total fubar.
I feel awful for the cast & crew of both movies.
Moonlight was robbed of their “moment” as people have pointed out, no one is talking about moonlight winning but of how it won.
La La Land was put into a very uncomfortable and embarrassing situation with the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows and made it clear that they didn’t want an award they didnt win.
WB is going to be unfairly scapegoated
It took too long for the Oscar producers to do something about it as they would have known almost immediately there was a mistake. They allowed the cast/crew to come on stage and start making speeches before they stepped onto the stage to take action. I thought the LLL producer, Fred ???, was rather rude when he started to make his speech and then said ‘we lost’ – if he knew that why did he start making a speech. Thats when Jordan Horowitz stepped in – no one else was.
Jordan Horowitz, althou a bit rude to WB when he snatched the card, was gracious in trying to save a very embarrassing situation when the host couldn’t be bothered to step up and do his job. Kimmel should have taken the mic, explained the situation, cleared the stage and then allowed WB/FD to present the award to the correct winners. Instead he fluffed around making bad jokes while the mess unfolded around him.
When i watched the video – it looked to me like WB was passing the card to Dunaway to show her the mistake but instead she blurted out the movie title without actually reading the card properly – its not her fault either. I think he just struggled to find a way to deal with it while everyone was watching him – happens to us all.
I was watching it w my MOM of all people bc when LaLaLand was announced I got excited (she hated the movie) & was like how could that be! Then when the mistake was rectified she got super excited & yelled I knew LLL couldn’t have won! And I just dove straight into how could that have happened?! And blamed her for the mistake, she put a jinx on it, lol. But seriously, you could tell WB was seriously confused & intentionally stalling but FD had no idea what was going on & getting antsy about it. I think he handed her the card bc that was part of the way it was supposed to be presented but also maybe to say am I reading this wrong? Maybe she’ll see what I see & say something, instead all she saw was LLL & called it out. Either way, it wasn’t the presenters fault (we could argue they could have said something) but the true fault indeed lies with those responsible for handing out the cards.
On another note: Denzel’s bitch face when Affleck won was the HIGHLIGHT of the show for me. The greatest thing ever! Lol, hes all class, man hahaha
On a completely separate note, Faye has a rocking bod. I hope I look that good at 76.
Such a mess. WB clearly knew something was wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 so I’m sure he wishes he had said “Hold on wait a minute…”
I just want to say the guy (director,producer, not sure) who kept giving his acceptance speech even though they knew they had not won can F off. When you find out you are not the winner you step away from the microphone & stop talking. To continue to thank people for an award you were just told you didn’t win is ruuuude AF.
I was so confused as I was watching this unfold last night. The Moonlight director is right, this has never happened at the Oscars before and it was quite bewildering and even a tad shocking. The more I think about it though, the more I love it because it’s real life, you know? Dare I say, I find it refreshing to see a program that has always run smoothly in the past experience such a magnificently chaotic and confusing clusterf#€$!
I think WB is at least partly to blame. Before he handed the card over he said ‘and the best picture goes to’ to queue it up. Not to confirm the mistake as some people stated