Jordan Horowitz the producer of La La land said “They asked to see my envelope, which I hadn’t opened, clearly something was wrong. They open my envelope, and it says ‘Emma Stone, “La La Land.”’
Emma Stone said she held onto her card after she won. it said Emma Stone La La Land
another best actress card went to Warren Beatty
so that is three best actress cards
Staged for sure. Need more attention, and for sure there will be more viewers next time that don't dare to "miss out" again.
shareI don't know, as a long time viewer it just came across as unprofessional and I felt bad for both films. Didn't make me want to watch it any more or less.
shareIt was certainly unfortunate. A mistake on the PwC accountant's part that I think everyone tried to correct in their own way, while trying to avoid as much extra embarrassment for themselves and others as possible.
I feel bad for the folks from both films, but both groups were gracious and good-natured considering the confusion and understandably mixed-up emotions. For me the only thing to fault is PwC's methods. It's a very poor idea to have duplicate envelopes laying around on both sides of the stage, that should be discarded, but no formal, established protocol for consistently and immediately discarding them. How could they have failed to see the huge room for error there? It's surprising this kind of mistake hasn't happened before, if this is how they've been doing it for 83 years.
i honestly believe moonlight is the better film
shareThat thought crossed my mind when it was happening and I wasn't able to really follow what was going on (my livestream kept disconnecting). But I watched a video of that moment to try to piece together what exactly happened with all the envelopes on the stage as the announcement and the damage control played out (I broke it down in my post below to OP), and there was simply too much confusion, and too many conflicting dynamics between personality types playing out, for it to have been staged.
Also many of these people aren't actors, and I don't imagine that the way some of them handled this, moment to moment, is exactly how they'd deliberately want to portray themselves.
But you may be right that next time more people will be watching!
yeah quite possible. it's all about money. at the end of the day it was kind of entertaining anyway.
shareI watched a video of that whole moment (Eyewitness News's YouTube video: https://youtu.be/8KeOxeuiZjs), and I think the duplicate Best Actress explanation checks out. From what I can tell, there was only *one* Best Actress envelope that circulated around the stage during the Best Picture announcement. The other one (the one Emma Stone was awarded with earlier in the ceremony) was never on stage when Stone went back on for the BP award.
Basically, several envelopes got checked and passed around on the stage. This is how I think it unfolded (timestamps in parentheses if you want to check it on the Eyewitness News video):
According to various media coverage, PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan gives the duplicate Best Actress envelope to presenter Warren Beatty when Beatty comes on stage to present.
(0:46) Beatty hands the duplicate Best Actress envelope to La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz when Horowitz reaches the stage to accept the Best Picture award.
(2:06-2:10) While LLL producer Marc Platt is giving his speech, a stage hand approaches Horowitz to check Horowitz's envelope, and opens it in view of Horowitz and LLL producer Fred Berger. Horowitz can be heard/seen saying, "We lost?"
(2:13) The stage hand then collects the duplicate Best Actress envelope, as well as nearby LLL Best Original Musical Score winner Justin Hurwitz's envelope, in his attempt to locate the Best Picture envelope.
(2:14-2:37) Meanwhile the two PwC accountants have also entered the stage with red envelopes (presumably both copies of the Best Picture envelopes), and gather with the stage hand and Beatty while LLL producer Fred Berger is giving a speech to essentially buy them time to figure it out. They go through the envelopes, and the stage hand gives Beatty one of the Best Picture envelopes, signaling to Beatty that he's all set to clear up the mistake once Berger concludes his speech.
(2:37-2:39) PwC accountant Cullinan starts to move off to the right side of the stage with multiple envelopes.
(2:40-2:55) Hurwitz dashes over to Cullinan, apparently to retrieve his Best Original Musical Score envelope. Somewhere around here is where I think Emma Stone gets the duplicate Best Actress envelope, because up until this point, Stone hadn't been holding an envelope during this appearance on the stage; she had come onstage only holding her Oscar statue, and at various times prior to now you can see she has no envelope (e.g., 2:30), but by (2:55), she's now holding a red envelope.
So Hurwitz now has (what he thinks is) his Best Original Musical Score envelope, Stone now has the duplicate copy of her Best Actress envelope, Beatty now has one of the Best Picture envelopes, and Cullinan still has (what he thinks is) the other Best Picture envelope.
(2:43) Meanwhile Jordan Horowitz, who's been envelope-less for some time now, announces at the mic that "Moonlight" has won.
(2:50) In the ensuing, confused pause and disbelief, as the LLL producers have to clarify "this is not a joke," the stage hand comes forward again to try to get someone with the correct card to present it. He approaches Cullinan who is closest to him. But as Cullinan opens the sole envelope left in his possession, he apparently had the wrong envelope, because...
(2:53-2:55) Cullinan goes back to find Justin Hurwitz (who apparently mistakenly took the other Best Picture envelope from Cullinan at (2:40), thinking it was his Best Original Musical Score envelope). It's probably here where Cullinan retrieves the other Best Picture envelope and Hurwitz regains possession of his Best Original Musical Score envelope.
(2:55) With a Best Picture envelope apparently gone astray yet again, the stage hand approaches Beatty again, this time pulling out the Best Picture card for him.
(2:57) Horowitz takes the Best Picture card from Beatty to show to the camera.
What do you think?
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shareI've gotta say "Well done!" as well. I remember watching Emma Stone telling the press that she was holding her envelope the whole time, and my mom and I both knew that wasn't the case. We had seen her on stage with the Oscar but no envelope. Her adrenaline was pumping with excitement from everything that had happened and was happening that she probably thought she was holding it. You broke down the specifics very well here. It seems weird to me that it took 89 years for a blunder like this to happen. It very well could be a stunt; however I would like to think that people know better than to pull a stunt like that on the BP winner. I loved "La La Land" and wanted it to win, but I've also heard great things about "Moonlight," and am interested in seeing that as well.
shareSorry for the late reply, Holly, and thanks! I think unexpected, unscripted developments during a live broadcast that might make various people look bad in front of millions of viewers can have a strange effect on people who by profession care about their image. I do think it was an honest mistake on PWC's part.
"Moonlight" is a lovely film.
How dumb are you people?
It was clearly the lizard people and the CIA working together.
The idea that it was just some huge cock-up is such sheeple-like thinking.
To all you conspiracy theorist nutcases:
Get your facts straight !
The two accountants have copies of all the winner envelopes.
There´s nothing strange about two envelopes per win @ the ceremony.
One of the accountants just handed out the wrong envelope.
There is no conspiracy.
PS
Moonlight is a better movie than La La Land
(insert movie title here) is a better movie than La La Land
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shareAccording to ratings, Insert Title Here IS a better movie than La La Land.
shareI think you are onto something. Hollywood wanted to have it both ways. La La Land is an instant classic! Many people I know don't even know what Moonlight is and I would bet that many in the Academy haven't even watched it. Many people are seeing La La Land multiple times. IMDB has La La Land at 8.4 while Moonlight has a 7.7. I believe they gave Moonlight the award out of political correctness.
Clearly Matt Damon had something to do with this. And the falling piece of set decoration that almost hit Kimmel in rehearsal.
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