When Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the Best Film at the recently held Academy Awards, everyone cheered. After all, it was a heartwarming movie with a gorgeous set design and an LSS-worthy song. However, it was the Miss Universe all over again because it turned out that La La Land didn’t win. It was Moonlight. Now everyone’s asking, how did this happen?
It turned out, the person handling the envelopes was too busy tweeting and taking photos backstage instead of overseeing the envelopes. This, after he was specifically told not to use social media during the ceremony.
PricewaterhouseCooper is an accounting firm that has been tabulating Oscar votes since 1934. Brian Cullinan, the chairman of PwC’s US board assigned to handle the envelopes backstage, was seen tweeting backstage minutes before he handed presenter Warren Beatty the wrong envelope, which contained the Best Actress Award, given to Emma Stone of La La Land.
According to insiders, he was taking photos of Emma Stone backstage with her Oscar and tweeting it three minutes before he handed the wrong envelope. When the Oscar fiasco happened, he deleted his tweets, but netizens have taken screenshots of four tweets, talking about various events in the night.
The accounting firm has taken responsibility of the fiasco, but a spokeswoman from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, said that they are reviewing their relationship with PwC. In the meantime, Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, his co-presenter, are both banned from future ceremonies.
Both Cullinan and Ruiz have not been dismissed from PwC, but in a strange turn of events, their families are now being protected by bodyguards. According to reports, they are getting death threats, and personal information, including photos of their homes, are being spread online.
Watch the video of the Oscar mix-up below:
What do you think about this issue? Do the accountants deserve all this? Share your thoughts below!
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