The Annual Academy Awards - General Discussion

[weathered1]

I think it did go Actor-Actress-Picture. 

I don't understand why the person from PWC didn't, I don't know, look to see what envelope he or she was handing out. I also don't understand why Warren and Faye didn't glance at it either. Warren did have to deal with a surreal, odd situation in front of a whole bunch of people, but he's not exactly shy - I'm not sure what kept him from saying something about it, since he knew the contents of the envelope were obviously wrong for the category. I don't think he handed it off to Faye so she'd be the one responsible; I think he was trying to show her that they'd gotten the wrong card. Why she didn't think Emma Stone's name in big letters on the card was odd enough that it would've kept her from reading the movie's name, I don't know. 

I do feel bad for the La La Land people - just seeing the whispered conversations spreading and then all of their faces falling was sad. Horowitz did handle things remarkably well, considering the extreme disappointment he (and everyone else up on that stage) must have been feeling. 

It does also suck for the people responsible for Moonlight. (I haven't seen it yet but I intend to as I keep hearing how excellent it is.) What should've been a victorious moment with the buzz revolving around the win being a huge upset, it was instead a moment of prolonged disbelief, confusion, and frustration (when people didn't initially believe the wrong movie had been named), that was then followed by the shock and the joy. It does give the movie a ton of attention - arguably more than it would've gotten had the win been announced correctly - but the moment was still marred for all involved.

[Vermicious Knid]

So, two accountants with two full sets of envelopes. And whomever was in charge of handing over the Best Picture one didn't pull out or properly separate the previous envelope. Yeah, I think in future they'll be immediately discarding the award just presented from the stack to avoid this happening again.

[aradia22]

Oh, and I know it must have been tough for the La La Land group and the Moonlight group but I still found it hilarious that one of La La Land speeches was all about dreams (which makes sense given the movie) and ended on a "keep dreaming" note. And in the middle of the Moonlight speech he said "but to hell with dreams!"

[Artsda]

5 minutes ago, Vermicious Knid said:

So, two accountants with two full sets of envelopes. And whomever was in charge of handing over the Best Picture one didn't pull out or properly separate the previous envelope. Yeah, I think in future they'll be immediately discarding the award just presented from the stack to avoid this happening again.

It's kind of amazing it never happened before. 

[aradia22]

Quote

I've begun to resent LLL so needless to say the petty side of me was howling when they were fake-awarded. Not a pretty impulse but there it is. 

Maybe they're nice guys. I don't know. But that movie had some issues and it was funny when they gave speeches as though they had the support of the film community and then it was like... erm, nope. Maybe next time you'll do better with diversity in your movie instead of just casting John Legend and giving a shout out to diversity in your speech. 

Though I had way more issues with La La Land's weak script than any political issues. 

[Jaded]

I fell asleep about 2hrs into the show and am glad I set the DVR to record when I felt myself getting sleepy. I can actually watch what happened with the mixup and etc. without having to look for clips online.

[GreatKazu]

The words "Best Picture" were so small and printed at the bottom of the card. The winner is in larger fonts. Faye likely saw the bigger word "La La Land" while not noticing the small print at the bottom. I was looking at that card on my big ass flat screen and I did not notice the small print at the bottom at first.

The president and others in charge should have gotten things under control and then had WB and FD read the true winners.

[maraleia]

Patty Arquette is rightly pissed IMO that her trans sister Alexis was omitted from the In Memoriam segment. The Arquette family goes back 4 generations in Hollywood so this was a double snub.

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, movingtargetgal said:

This show is always SO long.  Ten years ago we were watching the telecast and after Best Supporting Actor/Actress award was given out, my hubby got up to make us more snacks.  He ended up cutting his hand and needed to see a doctor.  We got dressed, drove 40 minutes to the ER, he got X-Rays and stitches, we drove another 40 minutes to get home and they were just giving out the awards for best screenplay.  True story.

At around 9:45, I drove over to my local Wal-Mart to get a new antenna for my mother's T.V. Got home 30 minutes later, and the big ones were still far from being announced.

This is honestly going to garner reams of publicity for both LaLa Land and Moonlight.

[Irlandesa]

31 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

Kimmel also handled it well, I thought, trying to smooth over the awkwardness (and I normally can't stand Kimmel).

I thought Jimmy did a decent job hosting the show but I didn't like how he handled the mistake.  His "I think you guys should just keep it" rubbed me the wrong way as did him continuously trying to smooth things over.  I get what he was trying to do but it just prolonged the messiness.  

As for Warren not recognizing he had the wrong card based on the writing on the outside--I've seen numerous close ups of that envelope and while I see writing on it, I do not think it's easy to read.  It's small and silvery.  Next year, they should go for big black letters. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Irlandesa

[Black Knight]

14 minutes ago, weathered1 said:

I do feel bad for the La La Land people - just seeing the whispered conversations spreading and then all of their faces falling was sad. Horowitz did handle things remarkably well, considering the extreme disappointment he (and everyone else up on that stage) must have been feeling.

And then Stone and Gosling - who are, after all, actors - helping to smooth things over by walking over with huge smiles to greet the Moonlight people as they came up the stairs. They knew there needed to be some smiles from LLL people and they were the ones best suited to do it.

[Black Knight]

4 minutes ago, GreatKazu said:

The president and others in charge should have gotten things under control and then had WB and FD read the true winners.

In fairness, Horowitz basically took it on himself to make an announcement. Beatty appeared to be preparing to read out the correct winner when Horowitz jumped in.

[methodwriter85]

7 minutes ago, 17wheatthins said:

Oh, yeah! I completely forgot about Alexis! How awful to not put her in the segment!

Damn, that is a snub. Hell, she even appeared in a brief moment in a past Oscar darling called Pulp Fiction. I get that her career wasn't exactly esteemed but jesus, they put Michael Jackson in who's acting career all consisted of playing a scarecrow in The Wiz.

Edited February 27, 2017 by methodwriter85

[aradia22]

Quote

The words "Best Picture" were so small and printed at the bottom of the card. The winner is in larger fonts. Faye likely saw the bigger word "La La Land" while not noticing the small print at the bottom. I was looking at that card on my big ass flat screen and I did not notice the small print at the bottom at first.

Yeah the layout of the card seemed a bit weird. They need to just fix that. You could make a card that looks nice (for the winners to keep) that's still very clear and easy to read. Especially since they like to bring out older presenters as a nod to Hollywood's past. 

Jimmy wasn't a good host. Mean Tweets is no Carpool Karaoke. The tweets usually aren't that bad and a lot the celebrities don't know how to laugh it off (like the adorable Eddie Redmayne did). I think I laughed at the mean tweet Miles Teller got and a bit of the Matt Damon stuff and Michael J. Fox's bit. But most of the things that amused me throughout the night had nothing to do with Kimmel. He didn't look happy to be there like some hosts but he also wasn't like Gervais who doesn't really care but will go for it with the jokes. 

[aradia22]

Quote

Damn, that is a snub. Hell, she even appeared in a brief moment in a past Oscar darling called Pulp Fiction. I get that her career wasn't exactly esteemed but jesus, they put Michael Jackson in who's acting career all consisted of playing a scarecrow in The Wiz.

I went to Patricia's twitter page and someone commented they left out Alan Rickman too. I was not paying that much attention. Is it possible they missed some cut off date and they'll be included next year? But then... they included Carrie Fisher. 

[FoundTime]

12 minutes ago, GreatKazu said:

The words "Best Picture" were so small and printed at the bottom of the card. The winner is in larger fonts. Faye likely saw the bigger word "La La Land" while not noticing the small print at the bottom. I was looking at that card on my big ass flat screen and I did not notice the small print at the bottom at first.

After the Steve Harvey thing, there was a post from a graphic designer that I follow suggesting the whole thing would have never happened with better design. Why not print the winner's name and the category in the same size font? The presenter's going to be saying/reading all that anyway whether it's "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Emma Stone, La La Land," or "Best Picture, Moonlight." Why have the category in teeny-tiny print way at the bottom of the card? Don't make it more difficult than it has to be, people.

I had been predicting a La La Land Best Picture win but was fine with Moonlight. That said, I was well and truly bummed that the Moonlight people didn't really get their proper "moment" in all the confusion. That was such a small yet artful film; I wanted the filmmakers to be able to really savor their win and I wanted to hear what they had to say in that moment, not after all the dust has settled.

[Irlandesa]

5 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

I went to Patricia's twitter page and someone commented they left out Alan Rickman too. I was not paying that much attention. Is it possible they missed some cut off date and they'll be included next year? But then... they included Carrie Fisher. 

Alan Rickman was last year. 

[Shaynaa]

Something rather karmic about the LLL producer(?) thanking his "blue eyed" wife only to learn that they hadn't actual won. I almost turned off the tv when he said that because I was so disgusted.  Very glad I kept watching.

[Artsda]

[VCRTracking]

Quote

I went to Patricia's twitter page and someone commented they left out Alan Rickman too.

Rickman died in January of 2016 a month before the Oscars so he was in that year's "In Memoriam".

My favorite tweet about the whole debacle:

[Sugar]

Ok, but it's awfully convenient that this "snafu" occurred on the last award, which is also the most coveted, and this year in particular, there was a lot of social/political drama leading up between the two movies that the "mistake" happened to.

How does the envelope system work - you'd think that since it's the LAST award of the night, they wouldn't be picking from a stack, they'd be tossing the ones that were already read out (if there are in fact 2 sets of envelopes for either side of the stage), so by my common sense, there was 1 envelope left to give to the presenter. Since they make such a big freaking deal about security, and chaining the briefcase, and counting the votes and checking a million times, how is it possible that this whole process was so sloppy - sloppy enough that someone could have made a mistake? I get it if it was your office Secret Santa pool, and two names got picked twice because Cheryl from Accounting accidentally wrote duplicates, but this is the OSCARS. It's never happened before - why now??? Again, why in a year where there was a ton of pressure from a racial perspective, was it a mistake between Lala and Moonlight, and why this particular award? Why did this not happen to Short Film or Sound Editing? The ratings have been failing for awhile now - maybe they saw how much press the Steve Harvey incident got and thought it would add to the Oscar hype.

It just sounds so unbelievably sketchy to me.

[VCRTracking]

30 minutes ago, Shaynaa said:

Something rather karmic about the LLL producer(?) thanking his "blue eyed" wife only to learn that they hadn't actual won. I almost turned off the tv when he said that because I was so disgusted. 

People are making such a big deal about that comment. Yep that Horowitz guy must be a real Na- oh wait. I think eyes are just the only feature about a woman where you can appropriately complement in public.

Quote

It just sounds so unbelievably sketchy to me.

Edited February 27, 2017 by VCRTracking

[Chas411]

To me Emma Stones win is up there with Jennifer Lawrence's win (and two out of her three nominations) - good performance but in no way deserving. Its probably not the case but it strikes me as the academy going for the safe bet or whoever they think is the coolest*.

*I realise Casey Affleck isn't a safe bet. I'm just talking about the female category as its not the first time I've thought this.

[methodwriter85]

6 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

 

People are making such a big deal out of that comment.

Black people can have blue eyes. See: Vanessa Williams.

Quote

To me Emma Stones win is up there with Jennifer Lawrence's win (and two out of her three nominations) - good performance but in no way deserving. Its probably not the case but it strikes me as the academy going for the safe bet or whoever they think is the coolest*.

This feels like a weaker year in general and a weaker category in general. I don't know, I feel like the last years I felt really invested were the 2013 and the 2015 ceremonies. 2012 (2013 ceremony) had to be one of my favorite recent years for movies.

[zxy556575]

1 hour ago, Vermicious Knid said:

So, two accountants with two full sets of envelopes. And whomever was in charge of handing over the Best Picture one didn't pull out or properly separate the previous envelope.

And that person was so careless that he or she didn't bother to glance at the title of the envelope before handing it over. Yeesh.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Lord Donia

[FilmTVGeek80]

23 minutes ago, Sugar said:

Again, why in a year where there was a ton of pressure from a racial perspective, was it a mistake between Lala and Moonlight, and why this particular award? Why did this not happen to Short Film or Sound Editing? The ratings have been failing for awhile now - maybe they saw how much press the Steve Harvey incident got and thought it would add to the Oscar hype.

 

What does the racial pressure have to do why they would stage this? As for why this particular award, maybe someone was just dead tired after a four show and handed out the wrong card - seems a simpler explanation than some grand conspiracy to embarrass not only the "La La Land" team but embarrass the whole Oscar production. The Oscars are not hurting for hype or buzz. I also doubt that a huge number of people are going to watch next year because of this. Would people really expect something like this to happen again the very next year?

[jjj]

One of the accounts in the Washington Post says that the Price Waterhouse woman who was supposed to give Beatty his envelope said backstage "he took the wrong envelope" as he was making the announcement.  It might be that she was supposed to hand him an envelope, but he picked up the extra "best actress" envelope as he headed onto the stage.  Not clear if she handed him the wrong envelope. 

[bref]

Well, that was certainly memorable. It took me several minutes to realize my jaw had literally dropped and I was staring at the TV with my mouth open like a cartoon character.

[mansonlamps]

2 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

People are making such a big deal about that comment. Yep that Horowitz guy must be a real Na- oh wait. I think eyes are just the only feature about a woman where you can appropriately complement in public.

I'm sorry, I guess I'm failing to see what the big deal is about this statement??  

[GreekGeek]

Good grief. Now I'm kicking myself from turning off the TV right after Dunaway said "La La Land." But I agree that the layout of the envelope was weird. I wonder if this will revive those "Marisa Tomei didn't really win, Jack Palance read the wrong name" rumors.

I'm happy that they rewarded Affleck's performance. I usually root for the new breakthrough performance over the one of the veteran who already has at least one Oscar. (I didn't follow the controversy about his personal life, but I predict this will be his only good movie). On the other hand, I would have chosen Portman over Stone. I was rooting for Hidden Figures or Arrival to pull off an upset win, but I was pretty sure they stood no chance. 

Overall it was a pretty boring show, apart from some fine speeches by the winners. The filler bits just annoyed me. Can we call a halt to the "giving the audience food" schtick? It was kind of amusing when Ellen DeGeneres did it the first time, but it doesn't deserve to be an annual tradition. If they're going to show montages, I want to see clips of performances (and not the ones that have been shown to death either), rather than Oscar acceptance speeches.

[starri]

1 minute ago, GreekGeek said:

Good grief. Now I'm kicking myself from turning off the TV right after Dunaway said "La La Land." But I agree that the layout of the envelope was weird. I wonder if this will revive those "Marisa Tomei didn't really win, Jack Palance read the wrong name" rumors.

If anything, it should put them to bed, since we now can see what happens.

2 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

Can we call a halt to the "giving the audience food" schtick?

Considering how happy a lot of them were to be chomping down on the Red Vines et al, I thought it had more mileage than it should have.

[irisheyes]

6 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

Haha, I wonder how many people stopped watching after La La Land "won" and they'll be waking up tomorrow thinking "what?!?"

That would be me.  Of course, I also went to bed when Game 7 of the WS went into extra innings and missed 108 years of futility ending, so there's that. I woke up this morning to 27 notifications on my phone. 

[NowVoyager]

I blame Pricewaterhouse Coopers entirely for this debacle. They are paid a lot of money to tabulate the votes correctly & hand out the correct envelopes in the proper order. That's their whole job. It doesn't sound hard to do, but the sole reason they are retained is to prevent snafus like this from happening. You had one job PWC!

I think Warren Beatty was a little bit floundering in the moment, a little bit passing it off on Joan Crawford, er Faye Dunaway, & a little bit praying for rescue.

I felt so bad for the LLL people! Standing there holding their Oscars. Crying, jumping for joy, all: "I want to thank my momma & the Lord Jesus Christ..."  Take poor Miss Venezuela & multiply it by 50. She had the crown pinned on, the sash, she had already had the gentle tear come down her cheek as she did her walk & wave--- just to have it SNATCHED DA FUCK OFF!!!

Confession is good for the soul: I'm filled with schadenfreude at the moment. It was all so tragic & yet I laughed & I laughed!!! 

[Spartan Girl]

Wow. Was not expecting that ending. How awkward for everyone.

Pissed that Casey won, happy that Emma won.

[Eyes High]

4 minutes ago, irisheyes said:

That would be me.  Of course, I also went to bed when Game 7 of the WS went into extra innings and missed 108 years of futility ending, so there's that. I woke up this morning to 27 notifications on my phone. 

That was me, too. I was sorry I missed the Best Picture drama, though, and no, I don't care if that makes me sound petty.

I'm not surprised Arrival lost a lot, but the Oscar for Sound Editing was very much deserved (plus we got a Quebec shoutout in the speech, which was fun.)

Yay for Moonlight! Even when I was at Mass yesterday, the priest praised the film during the homily at some length. (Also, fuck La La Land.)

Edited February 27, 2017 by Eyes High

[Ms Lark]

4 hours ago, FoundTime said:

After the Steve Harvey thing, there was a post from a graphic designer that I follow suggesting the whole thing would have never happened with better design. Why not print the winner's name and the category in the same size font? The presenter's going to be saying/reading all that anyway whether it's "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Emma Stone, La La Land," or "Best Picture, Moonlight." Why have the category in teeny-tiny print way at the bottom of the card? Don't make it more difficult than it has to be, people.

What's even sadder is a news article I read said that each of those envelopes/cards cost the Academy $200! That is ridiculous, especially for a (clearly) poor design. A real rip-off.

[Neurochick]

It's technology.  The more technology we have, the more people depend on it and forget that humans make mistakes.  The font on that card makes no sense though.  Maybe there are two envelopes, one the winner keeps, the other the Academy keeps and someone forgot to take that second envelope.

[mojoween]

Before the ending snafu there were other issues.  Apparently during In Memoriam the chyron for Janet Patterson, a costume designer who passed away, was under the picture of film producer Jan Chapman, who is very much alive.

[cincivic]

Why didn't Warren just call over the producer or Jimmy when he realized there was an envelope mistake? He has been around the block. It's not his first time opening an envelope. Granted, he never had this kind of mistake before. All he had to do was ask for Jimmy . True, the envelope should never have been handed out.

[SeriousPurrs]

I'm sure other stars are probably thinking, Damn, wish that had happened when I was a presenter.

Think of how many times Beatty's name has been reported, tweeted, spoken--Can't buy that much publicity!

Neither Beatty or Dunaway have had this much attention in decades(?) or at least a number of years.

(And they didn't even have to die.)

[Blergh]

Exactly, cincivic!  Mr. Beatty and Miss Dunaway are also perfectly literate and, as her character said in a movie she'd like to forget she made, it wasn't their 'first time at the rodeo'!  Yes, I mostly  blame Price and Waterhouse for the envelope gaffe itself but there was nothing stopping either of the presenters from saying 'Hold off! Someone handed us the 'Best Actress' envelope! We need the 'Best Picture' one! YESTERDAY!'

 

 While I do think the actual winning movie was more worthy, I can't feel but feel sorry for the "La La Land" folks who got all thrilled for a few minutes only to have to get deflated on worldwide television!

 

 I also noticed that they did not have the 'Price and Waterhouse ' vocal disclaimer at the end of the broadcast but I wonder if that had already been decided previous to this broadcast or whether they pulled the plug on that at the last minute.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Blergh
disclaimer

[mattie0808]

35 minutes ago, cincivic said:

Why didn't Warren just call over the producer or Jimmy when he realized there was an envelope mistake? He has been around the block. It's not his first time opening an envelope. Granted, he never had this kind of mistake before. All he had to do was ask for Jimmy . True, the envelope should never have been handed out.

This! Also, am I wrong, or weren't the first words out of his mouth -- after clearly seeing the wrong card, looking in the empty envelope, looking off-stage, etc. -- "And the Academy Award for Best Picture goes to..." *before* showing the card to Dunaway, who finished with LLL? And his goofy grinning while everyone was on stage trying to sort through the mistake didn't make any sense to me. Dunaway getting TFO (seriously, where did she go, lol) or Steve Harvey looking embarrassed/like he felt bad for the woman who was about to get her crown snatched make more sense to me as reactions than Beatty's kind of vacant smiling.

Edited February 27, 2017 by mattie0808

[thejuicer]

I think hindsight is always 20/20. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were in front of a packed theatre of their peers, live broadcast, millions of home viewers. I don't blame them for the oversight/confusion. It says something about Warren that he owned up to the error instead of running off. 

I feel bad for everyone involved - the two of them, La La Land, Moonlight. But like Jimmy Kimmel said life goes on, there are worse things that can happen.

[JudyObscure]

Why has this never happened before?  Because, for the first time,  the person handing out the cards was probably of the latest generation who has been messing up all his/her life and always told, "Don't worry about it.  We all make mistakes.  Be proud of yourself!  You did your best!"   So why be nervous and extra careful about which envelope you're holding?  The important thing is to have fun and check out all the stars, right?   I see it everywhere now and I expect we'll see lots more of it in years to come, because they are here.  We raised them  to be careless about everything they do because they know they'll be instantly forgiven and even hugged and praised for doing their best.  This was "only" the Oscars but it took the shine off the winners' moment.   Just hope one of them isn't your doctor, or your lawyer or like the very  young financial manager my parents hired who lost them over $100,000.  He apologized beautifully.

[starri]

You know, you don't have to be a Millennial to make a mistake.

Like, say, Faye Dunaway, who went ahead and read the damned thing even though it was apparently clear to Beatty that it was the wrong envelope.

[slf]

6 hours ago, Sugar said:

Ok, but it's awfully convenient that this "snafu" occurred on the last award, which is also the most coveted, and this year in particular, there was a lot of social/political drama leading up between the two movies that the "mistake" happened to.

How does the envelope system work - you'd think that since it's the LAST award of the night, they wouldn't be picking from a stack, they'd be tossing the ones that were already read out (if there are in fact 2 sets of envelopes for either side of the stage), so by my common sense, there was 1 envelope left to give to the presenter. Since they make such a big freaking deal about security, and chaining the briefcase, and counting the votes and checking a million times, how is it possible that this whole process was so sloppy - sloppy enough that someone could have made a mistake? I get it if it was your office Secret Santa pool, and two names got picked twice because Cheryl from Accounting accidentally wrote duplicates, but this is the OSCARS. It's never happened before - why now??? Again, why in a year where there was a ton of pressure from a racial perspective, was it a mistake between Lala and Moonlight, and why this particular award? Why did this not happen to Short Film or Sound Editing? The ratings have been failing for awhile now - maybe they saw how much press the Steve Harvey incident got and thought it would add to the Oscar hype.

It just sounds so unbelievably sketchy to me.

I don't see how it would make more sense for it to have happened to another award? It was a mistake and therefore random and occurred at the end of a long night when everyone was tired. And while there has definitely been a lot of discussion about diversity centering around LLL, that's not exactly unique to that film and I don't believe for a second that the Academy actually cares about diversity, something that's made itself apparent year after year. I don't think the Academy would embarrass a film starring two of Hollywood's darlings to...what? Just embarrass them for the sake of it? It certainly couldn't have been about making a point about diversity or 'social issues' given they nominated Mel Gibson and awarded Casey Affleck knowing Brie Larson, an advocate for assault victims, would have to give him the award.

Not buying that this was a setup.

15 minutes ago, JudyObscure said:

Why has this never happened before?  Because, for the first time,  the person handing out the cards was probably of the latest generation who has been messing up all his/her life and always told, "Don't worry about it.  We all make mistakes.  Be proud of yourself!  You did your best!"   So why be nervous and extra careful about which envelope you're holding?  The important thing is to have fun and check out all the stars, right?   I see it everywhere now and I expect we'll see lots more of it in years to come, because they are here.  We raised them  to be careless about everything they do because they know they'll be instantly forgiven and even hugged and praised for doing their best.  This was "only" the Oscars but it took the shine off the winners' moment.   Just hope one of them isn't your doctor, or your lawyer or like the very  young financial manager my parents hired who lost them over $100,000.  He apologized beautifully.

Hey, it wasn't millennials who read the obviously wrong card. That was the old people.

Edited February 27, 2017 by slf

[JudyObscure]

Warren Beatty didn't read the card out loud at all.  He recognized that it was wrong and held it out to Faye as if to say, "what should we do now?" Faye Dunaway had every reason to trust that the name of the movie on the card was the name of the movie that had won.  She thought Warren was just acting silly and thought the winners had had enough suspense so she looked for the movie name and read it.  There was no reason for her to stand there and ponder why an actress's name was also on the card.

You're right I don't know the age of the person responsible for handing out the cards.  I'm just making a guess based on a hundred recent experiences.

ETA: Price Waterhouse Coopers says:

 

"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 statement read. "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."

An investigation.  To find out who was handing the envelopes to the presenters. Couldn't they just ask, well, anyone who was backstage that night?

Edited February 27, 2017 by JudyObscure

[spiderpig]

44 minutes ago, thejuicer said:

I think hindsight is always 20/20. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were in front of a packed theatre of their peers, live broadcast, millions of home viewers. I don't blame them for the oversight/confusion. It says something about Warren that he owned up to the error instead of running off. 

I feel bad for everyone involved - the two of them, La La Land, Moonlight. But like Jimmy Kimmel said life goes on, there are worse things that can happen.

I don't blame Beatty either.  Even though he's been in the spotlight for nearly 60 years, something this unexpected can throw you for a loop when you are aware you are being viewed by over a billion people live (as they constantly remind us).  I thought he was flummoxed, and showed Dunaway the card while he was trying to recoup and figure out what to do.  She, ever the dramah queen, blurted out "LA LA Land".

[vibeology]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

It's supposed to be a fairly straight forward, pain free process.  Walk up to the stage, read the banter on the teleprompter, open the card and read what's on it.  When he read what was on it, he looked confused.  Something wasn't right about it so suddenly he's being made to process something strange....in front of a room full of people while the show is over in time.  While the fact that he got the wrong card looks pretty obvious now, it's not something that is common at these awards shows so likely wasn't top-of-mind as a reason things seemed off.  In fact, other than the Miss Universe thing (and was that even the wrong card?) I can't recall it ever happening although I read somewhere that it happened at the Tonys almost 30 years ago.  

And he didn't even read it.  Faye did.   

I have serious sympathy for Warren. He's not going to look at the front of the envelope and he's going to assume, because until this time that's how its been, that he's been given the correct envelope. He knew something was wrong, wasn't able to put together exactly what because the categories are small and in the corner. He did look off-stage for help and he did check the envelope to make sure there wasn't a second card in there.

He tried but you also know before they went on stage they were probably told by a producer to keep it short since the show was so long so he and Faye, who thought he was milking the moment rather than understanding that he was genuinely confused, both wanted to announce the winner quickly and help wrap things up. I look at it now and think, there were other ways to handle it, but in the moment, I can't blame him or her. He knew something was wrong. There's audio of him right after Faye announced the award saying "It said Emma." It's just when a mistake like this has never happened before, its so much harder in the moment to understand what happened.

7 hours ago, Amethyst said:

3.  Props to Jordan Horowitz for shutting that shit down immediately after he realized what was going on.  I felt so bad for that guy giving his speech while everyone was figuring out what actually happened.  And I was RME at Jimmy's "can't we just give the Oscars to both LaLaLand and Moonlight?"  It's not a t-ball participation award, it's a damn Oscar, and Moonlight won it.  Glad that Jordan responded "I'm proud to give this to the cast and crew of Moonlight" and motioned them to come onstage.

Yep. The whole thing was messy and I do think Warren was about to do his best to fix it, but Horowitz wanted to get things moving and end the disaster and I appreciate that. If I thought I won an Oscar only to find out I'd lost I don't think I'd have had the composure to announce the winner and make a lovely statement. I'd be crying on stage. Huge props to him and all the LLL cast and crew who graciously greeted the Moonlight winners. That whole situation sucked for everyone involved and while I was hoping for Moonlight to win, not like that.

As for how to avoid this ever happening again, label the envelopes better. I know a screenshot isn't the best quality, but small gold print on a red envelope isn't the easiest thing to read. White envelope, larger black print. It's a classic for a reason. Same goes for the cards inside. The category needs to be bigger and at the top. If Warren had seen that, I'm sure he would have been more confident to call out the mistake before the winner was even announced. Also, I'm not sure why it took quite so long for the PWC accountants (who apparently memorize all 24 winners) to stop that madness. They're guarding the envelopes so they must be right on the side of the stage with some sort of stage manager/producer. I'm sure we will learn more today and the rest of the week about how it all went down

[Chicken Wing]

And because the Oscars didn't screw up enough with the Best Picture mess, it also turns out that one of the people featured in the In Memoriam segment is actually not even dead.