One year later, the 2017 Oscar Best Picture debacle feels like a fever dream. It’s still crazy to me that it’s literally my job to watch the Oscars and provide any kind of commentary on them, and what I remember clearly was being pretty tired – it had been such a long night – but that I was grateful to Jimmy Kimmel because he had kept the show moving at a brisk pace, and that the show was ending at a somewhat reasonable time. When they announced La La Land as Best Picture, I already knew what I wanted to write – which basically consisted of “shoulda been Moonlight” – and then as I was writing my analysis for the last post of the evening, all hell broke loose on stage. By now, we know what happened – Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong card, and Faye announced “La La Land” even though the wrong card clearly said “Best Actress: Emma Stone for La La Land.” Warren Beatty was given props for keeping his head and putting the pieces together quickly, even though the whole thing still descended into chaos. Anyway, guess who’s coming back to present Best Picture on Sunday?
After the real-life disaster at last year’s Oscars, the Academy feels the best way to make sure the proper people accept the award for Best Picture — bring back the ones who screwed it up … because TMZ has learned Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will do the honors again!!!
Our Oscar sources tell us Warren and Faye both just showed up at the Dolby Theatre and rehearsed the big moment. We’re told they were shuffled onstage together very quickly to run through their bit. They went through their lines twice. She began by saying, “Presenting is better the second time around,” Beatty followed up with, “The winner is ‘Gone with the Wind.'”
We’re told the writers are still putting finishing touches on their lines.
You’ll recall last year, we reported Warren and Faye had so much animosity toward each other they refused to rehearse onstage together. That set up the debacle when Faye opened the envelope and announced “La La Land” as the winner. Once on stage, they were sent packing when the producer of the movie announced the screw up — that “Moonlight” actually was the winner.
I guess it will be funny? It will still feel like a f–king fever dream by the time we get to the Best Picture announcement. Meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoyed The Hollywood Reporter’s “oral history of the Best Picture Fiasco,” which came out several days ago – you can read it here. What I took away from that is that Beatty is super-calm and very smart, and he was very afraid that he was going to blamed for something that was not his fault (and he was incredibly respectful towards everyone involved with Moonlight). Another takeaway: everyone hates Faye Dunaway. So at least that should be fun.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
oof
Why do they hate each other and why does everyoe hate Faye…she gives me Streisand Diva vibes.
Its partly that she is difficult but mostly because unpliable women are detested in a patriachal system.
1) She undermined her female co-star on Mommy Dearest. Its Hollywood lore that she demanded that her co-star wardrobe be made more dowdy and that she have fewer close up shots. The actress also said Faye refused to read lines for her on her takes but demanded she be there for her (Fayes) takes. Some of the wardrobe and closeup shots demands are understandable since Faye was playing a Hollywood diva and the other actress was playing her assistant.
2) Bette Davis went on a talkshow and called her the worst person ever. She said she hated Faye even more than she ever hated Joan Crawford. Apparently Faye was chronically late and rude about it when they worked on some movie together. Dont keep Bette waiting.
3) A few decades later Faye had a bizzare feud with Andrew Lloyd Webber. He cast her in a musical believing she could sing, discovered she couldnt and fired her. She then called a press conference and went on a long unhinged rant. See Youtube video
4) She rang up some journalist/biographer and excoriated him for some minor unflattering line he had written about her (or maybe it was about her husband – I forget). He released the recording thereby settling the idea that she is cray.
5) Now this one Is a prime example of misogyny at play. During the making of Chinatown, Polanski and Nicholson had a little boys club going. (Remember Polanski drugged and raped that poor child in Jack Nicholsons house). They didnt like Faye and made life hell for her on that set and she returned fire. For example one time he plucked a hair from her head because it wouldnt sit right for his perfect shot. She exploded and stormed off. They tell this anecdote like SHE was the irrational one in that situation. Another one is that she specifically was never allowed bathroom breaks so one day she peed into a container and threw it in Polanskis face.
There may be others but these are the verified ones that are accepted as fact. But please remember that Warren Beaty was no slouch either. He too was a notorious diva and constantly clashed with directors and studio heads. The definitive book on that period is Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and it notes many Beatty diva moments including storming into the head of Warner Bros office and pointing at the WB logo then asking “what does that stand for?” The boss replies “its an acronym for Warner Bros” and Beatty tells him “no, its stands for Warren Beatty”. He declares that as their biggest star, he IS the studio and then proceeds to make ludicrous demands. Faye is a bit off but she also gets an extra dose of hate for being a woman.
Wow thank you for taking the time to write all that, very interesting. And you are a very god writer too…i was perfectly visualizing everything you said.
Such a good summary! Thank you!
She infamously rude to pretty much every underling she meets. She is notoriously unpleasant and mean. That’s not misogyny.
This is why I keep coming back to Celebitchy- I learn. Thank you.
Please, no.
Nope, very bad idea. Just a straight up mockery of old people.
It’s a do-over…
Take two.
The worst part of that, in my opinion, was that the La La Land people got up there, did their thank yous, and then were like “btw we didn’t win, Moonlight did.” They knew they didn’t win before they started talking. They should have immediately sat back down. that was shameful IMO.
Yup.
Er, no, they didn’t know they hadn’t won. I don’t know how you got that idea.
The first La La Land producer concluded his speech just as various staff finally came on stage to tell them there was a problem. The accountants who messed up the cards in the first place were meant to rush the stage immediately in the event the wrong winner was announced…they did nothing and everyone else took about 2 minutes to react.
The second producer started and gave his speech not noticing there was drama slowly building behind him.
The third producer had found out by the time it was his turn, but the second producer, still unaware, pushed him towards the mic. None of the staff who were supposed to be fixing it were making any kind of move towards the mic, they were just huddled up talking to Warren and others. So the third guy had no idea what to do, hence the ‘we didn’t win by the way’ comment at the end of his very brief and awkward ‘speech’.
They thought they had won for about 3 minutes after the announcement.
Yep and stole a moment from Barry and cast and then the media fawned all over them because they were “nice” about it.
Come on! they didn’t “steal” a moment. They did not do this. This is on the accountants 100%. This would have been absolutely devastating for them: to think they won and then have it yanked away. It’s unfair and messed up that the Moonlight team were robbed of their full, joyous moment in the spotlight but, again, that is on the guy who was too busy tweeting to give out the right envelopes! Not the La La Land team.
Anyway… I frigging hated La La Land as a movie so I’m just glad that mediocre cr*p didn’t win. I’m still in shock that Emma Stone won for terrible singing and dancing and making big eyes with dark eyebrows. Apparently that’s worth an Oscar? Virtually all of the nominees this year acted absolute circles around her.
Beatty did get a tonne of blame – I remember quite vividly the NYT breaking news alert said (paraphrasing) “Warren Beatty reads out wrong Best Picture winner”.
Faye doesn’t seem like a lovely warm person, but honestly I don’t think she deserves the blame. I think very few would have questioned it – your eyes dart to La La Land and you say it. And what would rehearsing have done? The fuck-up is entirely PWCs.
If nothing else it was the only interesting Oscar moment of this century.
She read the card, she absolutely deserves the blame. Not to mentioned, she IMMEDIATELY peaced out and didn’t care that thins went wrong.
I love when professional events or organizations troll us. I really do. This is fun. I hope their lines are funnier than what TMZ reported.
Did Beatty look calm because he was or he was just stunned at the oops and was processing how to talk to Jimmy about what just happened when the LaLa Land guy snatched the card to show the camera and get the right winner on stage? No shade if he was – everyone was.
Anyway I’d hope he’d have some fun if the FD thing is true and let her know that he should probably announce this one.
I actually had a lot of respect for Warren (one of Hollywood’s worst humans!) for refusing to hand over the card to anyone at first; he would show people but not give it to anyone, so he and Faye couldn’t be blamed for anyone else’s mistake.
.
Mmmm why? And I still wonder why he simply didn’t say “this is the wrong envelope.” Are they going to deliver a spiel in an attempt to be funny? Please no.
Yeah, I don’t get that. He was looking at it for about 10 seconds, he could clearly read it properly because he reacted immediately as if it was wrong…he could have just said he got the wrong card and saved so much drama.
There are supposed to be measures in place so that doesn’t happen, so he was clearly really confused in the moment. He did something really normal – hand it to the person next to him as if to say “am I going blind or is this wrong?”. Obviously had he realized that Faye wouldn’t check he would have said something.
I agree but he said he thought maybe it was a typo and he didn’t want to ruin the moment either. He was showing it to Faye to get her take but didn’t say anything and then she read it out. Hindsight is 20/20, I’m sure he regrets not saying that too. I think it’s easy to forget that they’ve probably had a few drinks, they’re up there at the biggest moment of the night with a lot of pressure, the lights are on them, the cameras are whirring… This was completely unexpected and threw him for a loop.
THIS.
When Beatty realized he had the wrong envelope, he should have said so instead of pausing and then handing it off to Dunaway, who CLEARLY thought that he was delaying the announcement for dramatic effect.
Read somewhere that the moment couldn’t have happened to a more ill-equipped presenter as far as handling spontaneity goes–WB is rigid (just listen to his painful, super-careful interview answers sometime) and not someone who goes off-script easily. That said, the Mad Tweeter utterly failed at his job, thereby drastically failing everyone involved.
It sounds like they are deliberately setting Beatty up for failure again and I don’t like it one bit. He doesn’t deserve that.
Why? This is so dumb. LOL. Why not have Barry Jenkins do it? Or maybe Barry and Damien (Best Picture / Best Director) from last year. This just illustrates how silly the Academy is.
I’m not going to watch, but I hope if there is some kind of 90th anniversary montage, they will show the screw-up, but have a video clip allowing Barry and the producers to thank their friends, family and colleagues thoroughly, not that rushed mess, saturated with secondhand embarrassment.
I just remember the look on Shirley MacLaine’s face when she watched her younger brother Warren up there looking confused in the whole mess.
And thanks for saying what many know. Beatty is a very smart man. He is not the most articulate but that doesn’t equal smart. He looks like a very calm and thoughtful person. And I watched and he didn’t want to say it. Faye just basically took over. He was really attacked and called all kinds of names. Something Older people have to endure. And in this case it was not deserved. I get the lets do a redo on this one.
I read parts of that Hollywood Reporter article. It was so blow-by-blow, they could have said the same thing in one-quarter the length. After awhile I was thinking, this isn’t that important! Get over it!
This!
I was exhausted halfway through. They were dissecting every moment as if someone had been shot on stage. The wrong winner was announced, get over it.
Also, not sure why Warren Beatty, who realized they had the wrong card, couldn’t just say that out loud. A simply “I think Best Actress has already been announced – we have the wrong card!” would have saved a lot of time.
He’s going to announce Best Picture… Gone with the Wind.
Oh my. I remember last year’s episode like it was yesterday. We were in our living room watching it and recording it because I was so sure Moonlight was going to win that I stormed up to bed when it didn’t. My husband yelled up, “Moonlight won!” I seriously thought he was trolling me so I ignored him so he came running up and turned on the TV when it was still messy and then Moonlight people were going up there. I was going, “Oh my God what is happening?” Seriously, it was funny at the time because I went from being so pissed (La La Land was a ridiculous movie) to so elated I fell asleep watching the craziness on loop. I still have it recorded because I loved seeing Moonlight people win but I’m still angry that the La La people still gave speeches after they lost and it kind of tainted the lovely Moonlight.
I swear I want the loop played at my funeral.
To be fair, the La La Land people didn’t know they hadn’t won when they gave the speeches. The first two in a big group gave speeches having no idea. There was quiet chaos going on behind them but again, they didn’t know. The third producer knew and that’s why when he was pushed up he said “We didn’t win by the way”. It was awful that the glow of the moment was robbed from the Moonlight crew but the only person to blame was the PWC accountant who was too busy tweeting to get his job right.
Agreed, La La Land was absolute crap.
I’ve been watching the Oscars faithfully for the past 20 years, and the ONE time something exciting happened, my baby had just woken up crying, so I missed it because I was upstairs nursing him. When I came back down and my husband told me what happened, I was so upset (that I missed it, not that Moonlight won).
My takeaway from the Hollywood Reporter piece wasn’t that everyone hates Faye Dunaway. I mean, they do, but there were only two mentions of her. Did I miss something?
Because of this entirerly avoidable mess-up, the story became about the incredible grace of the losers (what were the Blah blah Land producers going to do anyway? Run off the stage with the Oscar they had not win nor deserve?) when it should have been a celebration of the first movie with an all black and LGBT cast winning the graal of Oscar noms.
What they shoud do is give the Moonlight team the time to deliver the speeches they could not give last year.
OMGGGG @Kate this SO MUCH. That is why Jay-Z did that video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCSh48OlvMo and
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/08/06/jay-zs-moonlight-music-video-does-more-than-simply-show-friends-with-an-all-black-cast/?utm_term=.6f69e8812a3b
So let me get this straight-the people who fucked it up last time, are given the job to do it again? THIS is why we can’t have nice things. They will never learn.
I think it will make for an interesting metatextual moment. They’ll come out onstage (and show they can laugh at themselves), the audience will get the allusion to last year and there will be a lot of laughter, but also applause. It’ll be a communal experience.
😁😁
I’m so sick of seeing Warren Beatty at the Oscars as a presenter. How in the world he has avoided Me Too is laughable! Anybody but his swarmy voice and old face on Oscar night. Please!
Loved him in Reds.
My sister and I were discussing having a drinking game and I said whenever a La La Land/Moonlight joke is made, cause you know thats probably gonna be joked about more than once.
Also, I dont think its fair to put the blame on them in the first place. That should really come down on the guy who was on his phone taking pictures of Emma Stone, rather than doing his job and making sure the right envelope was handed out. Faye thought Warren was stalling for effect, and read out the first words she saw.