OSCARS
2017: IT ALL STARTED AS DUNAWAY'S CO-PRESENTER, WARREN BEATTY, OPENED THE
ENVELOPE TO READ THE WINNER FOR BEST PICTURE. HE LOOKED CONFUSED, TOOK A LONG
PAUSE, AND THEN LOOKED OVER AT DUNAWAY, WHO CLEARLY THOUGHT HE WAS DOING SOME
SORT OF BIT. "YOU'RE AWFUL!" SHE SAID, AS THE CROWD LAUGHED NERVOUSLY
In what is most certainly the most shocking moment in
Oscars history, Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for best picture at the
end of the night, awarding the trophy to La La Land
when it actually was supposed to go to Moonlight.
It all started as Dunaway's co-presenter, Warren Beatty
, opened the envelope to read the winner for best
picture. He looked confused, took a long pause, and then looked over at
Dunaway, who clearly thought he was doing some sort of bit. "You're
awful!" she said, as the crowd laughed nervously. "God." Beatty
then handed the envelope to Dunaway, who announced La La Land.
The cast and crew of La La Land
(which had already won six awards during the ceremony)
arrived on stage to accept the award. Producers Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt
delivered their speeches, when all of a sudden there was a flurry of activity
on stage.
A man with a headset started talking to several people
on stage, as did Martha Ruiz, only one of two accountants in charge of
tabulating Oscar ballots - and therefore only one of two people who knew all
the winners before the show.
As people were conferring behind him, producer Fred
Berger stepped up the microphone. He was in the middle of thanking his family
when he briefly turned around. "We lost, by the way," he said. Huh?
That's when Horowitz stepped forward again. "Guys, guys, I'm sorry. No.
There's been a mistake
," he said. "'Moonlight,' you guys won best
picture. This is not a joke."
Cue confused gasps from the crowd, which quickly turned
into a standing ovation. "This is not a joke," Horowitz repeated.
'Moonlight has won best picture." He held up the card that proved it:
"'Moonlight.' Best picture."
As the audience (and millions of viewers) tried to
process what happened, the camera panned to the cast of Moonlight in the crowd,
clearly in shock and hugging each other.
Host Jimmy Kimmel arrived on stage to help sort things
out, and crack jokes. "I think you guys should keep it anyway," he
said. "Guys, this is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame
Steve Harvey for this."
Kimmel turned to Horowitz. "I would like to see you
get an Oscar, anyway," he said. "Why can't we just give out a whole
bunch of them?"
Horowitz demurred: "I'm going to be really proud to
hand this to my friends from Moonlight," he said.
"That's really nice of you," Kimmel said.
Beatty stepped forward to try to clear up the confusion.
"Warren, what did you do?!" Kimmel yelled.
Beatty went on to explain he had paused earlier when he
looked at the envelope was because it said "Emma Stone, La La Land."
Stone had just won best actress.
"That's why I took such a long look at Faye . . . I
wasn't trying to be funny," Beatty explained to the audience.
"Well, you were funny," Kimmel said.
An additional wrinkle was added to the saga backstage,
where Stone explained that she was on stage after La La Land was announced as winner
with her best actress Oscars and card in hand.
"Of course it was an amazing thing to hear La La
Land, " Stone said. "We would have loved to have won best picture.
But we are so excited for 'Moonlight.' I think it's one of the best films of
all time. I was also holding my 'best actress in a leading role' card that
entire time. So whatever story, I don't mean to start stuff, but whatever story
that was, I had that card."
E! reported that Warren Beatty was handed the wrong
envelope, and showed a close-up shot of the envelope labeled as such.
Horowitz gave a play-by-play after the ceremony on E!,
explaining that he had taken the envelope after the winner was announced and
held it the card as he gave his acceptance speech.
"There was a guy, a stagehand guy, who started kind
of buzzing around, looking for the envelope," Horowitz said.
Eventually, the envelope was found. He "opened it,
and it said 'Emma Stone, La La Land on it," Horowitz said. "At that
moment, it was clear there was a problem. They eventually found the best
picture envelope."
Meanwhile, also backstage, Moonlight director Barry
Jenkins said he's a longtime Oscar viewer, and had never seen anything like
this happen before.
"I noticed the common and I thought something
strange had occurred, and I'm sure everybody saw my face, but I was speechless
when the result was offered," Jenkins said. "So it made a very
special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected."
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