LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was one of the most awkward moments in the history of the Oscars, of television, in entertainment, heck maybe in American history.
And somehow Warren Beatty, Hollywood's ultimate smooth leading man, was at the center of it, and the accounting firm that is responsible for the integrity of Oscar voting apologized and was vowing a full investigation.
The producers of "La La Land" were nearly done with their acceptance speeches for Best Picture, the Oscar broadcast's credits sequence about to roll, when a stir of whispers began on stage. Moments later "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz returned to the microphone and said "Moonlight won Best Picture" and insisting that "this is not a joke."
The collective jaw of the crowd at the Dolby Theatre — and of America — remained dropped long after they became convinced it was no joke, but what academy historians later called an apparently unprecedented Oscar error. The accounting firm PwC, formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers, said early Monday that Beatty and Dunaway had been given the wrong envelope.
"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," a statement from the firm said. "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."
The statement came several hours after the chaotic ending, which featured Beatty returning to the mic to explain that he had opened the envelope and he was confused when it read "Emma Stone, La La Land." He had shown it to co-presenter Faye Dunaway briefly, as though he wanted her to read it, which she did, apparently assuming the Emma Stone part was off but the "La La" part correct.
"It's one of the strangest things that's ever happened to me," Beatty said backstage. "Thank God there were two of us up there," Dunaway responded.
The actress then asked Beatty, "Who else should I tell?"
"Everybody," he said.
At that point, a security guard tried to take the real envelope and Beatty said, "Security is not getting this. I'm giving it to (Moonlight director) Barry Jenkins at a later time." Beatty also refused to show it to anyone else.
ABC News, tweeting about the ceremony broadcast on its network, said the envelope held by Beatty read, "Actress in a leading role." A close-up photo of Beatty onstage verified that.
PwC has counted votes and provides winner envelopes for the Oscars and has done so for more than 80 years.
When the firm's representatives realized the mistake, they raced onstage to right it, but too late, officials told The Associated Press.
The result was a bizarre scene with the entire cast of both movies standing together on stage exchanging sympathetic awkward stares and hugs.
The crowd had to rouse itself from its stunned stupor to try to give "Moonlight" its just due for winning the big award. And as the credits rolled, usually bringing sweet relief after a long night, people appeared hesitant to leave in their disbelief.
"It made a very special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected," a bemused Jenkins, co-writer and director of "Moonlight," said backstage.
"The folks at 'La La Land' were so gracious," he added. "I can't imagine being in their position and having to do that."
Filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, who won a best screenplay award for "Manchester by the Sea," cracked wise backstage: "It turns out that we actually won best picture, which we're really happy about," he said.
The ceremony's chaotic scene immediately raced to the top of all-time Oscar moments, far more stunning than the nude man who raced across the stage in 1974 as part of the "streaking" fad.
And it immediately evoked Steve Harvey's recent gaffe of naming the wrong Miss Universe winner.
The Miss Universe Twitter account quickly let the Oscars know they felt their pain.
"Have your people call our people, we know what to do," the tweet read.
That was the beginning of a Tweet pile-on that may be the biggest of all time, with many declaring that "La La Land" won the popular vote while "Moonlight" won the electoral college.
But this stage, and this audience, were far, far bigger and are likely to last far, far longer in collective memory.
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AP writers Lynn Elber, Beth Harris and Lindsey Bahr contributed to this report.
I turned off the show right after La La Land was announced and didnt see any of this, just learning of the mistake when I saw the news this morning.
I would have to blame Warren Beatty. When he saw the wrong information was on the card he should have walked over to Jimmy Kimmel and showed it to him, rather than giving it to Faye Dunaway to read. She didn't examine it .
Let the conspiracy theories begin !
I don't know if Warren Beatty is to blame but I give credit to the La La Land producer who rushed in to correct the mistake and give the award to his competitor. That said more to me than the mistake ever could.
It's a good day for Steve Harvey.
The actress Emma Stone , who won for best actress in La La Land , said in a backstage interview that she had the card for Best Actress in her hand as the wrong best picture winner was read. Beatty says the card he and Dunaway read from also said Emma Stone . So Emma Stone's name was on two cards. Whoever prepared the cards made the huge mistake, but Beatty never should have allowed it to be read once he realized it was not the correct card. I guess he panicked in the moment.
From what I read, there are always two cards: one is retained by officials and the other is presented to the winner. Emma Stones name is supposed to be on both cards for best actress. There is no third card so, somehow, the officials' card for best actress (which had already been awarded) was given to Beatty instead of the card for best picture. He knew there was some kind of mistake but may have thought that La La Land was getting best picture even though it had Emma Stone's name on it. I don't see how it's his fault because he guessed wrong in trying to cover for a mistake.
Once again we see the liberal media reporting their opinion with liberal bias. A conservative opinion writer would be more likely to say Obama's reelection was the most awkward moment in American history.
Yes, but Obama's re-election was not a mistake. It was inevitable.
Most people outside of the left wing Hollywood looney bin don't care about the Oscars. This reporter is out of touch with middle America.
It had 34 million viewers in the US, and many tens of millions more around the world.
I suppose many "middle Americans" may have been listening to a Rush Limbaugh rerun instead. Or maybe there was a Hee-Haw reunion on one of the cable channels.
Compared to the Super Bowl that had 111 million viewers we see only liberal loonies care about the Oscars.
Why didn't this reporter call Janet Jackson's tit flash more awkward with so many more people watching? The reason is they are out of touch.
Compared to the Super Bowl that had 111 million viewers we see only liberal loonies care about the Oscars.
Why didn't this reporter call Janet Jackson's tit flash more awkward with so many more people watching? The reason is they are out of touch.
At the time they probably did. Fame is fleeting.
Your incessant whining about the "left" and "liberal loonies" requires psychiatric intervention.
The Oscars are too unimportant to be the most anything in history. Who cares?
Only our right wing lunk heads would troll this article.
Sorry I don't worship movie stars John.The idea that an award show mixup is of historic importance is silly. Politics has nothing to do with it.
I don't worship them either. So fucking what?
This forum is becoming ridiculous.
"It was one of the most awkward moments in the history of the Oscars, of television, in entertainment, heck maybe in American history."
What kind of an idiot writes a statement like that? It was a mistake. It will be forgotten in time for next year's Oscars. Most awkward moments in American History? Oh, please. That obviously comes from someone with no sense of history or reality.
Things like that are not "forgotten" because they become part of the lore of the event. How many books do you think have been written about the academy awards? Over 1000.
Rather than discuss the mix up, the conservatives here attacked the event and the AP comparison. Too bad, but hardly surprising.
Once again, written form the standpoint of someone that lives in la la land and doesn't understand that there are far more important history making and historical events than some idiot screwing up the envelopes for some actor(s) to give a prize to other actor(s) or the people behind the scenes-it's a self-congratulatory hand job at best-and his little to no bearing on the world we live in today, except to point out the lack of perspective of the writer of this.
It's entertainment.
Hollywood today is a whipping boy for butt hurt right wingers.
I don't watch awards shows and I didn't see either movie but others saw them. I only saw the incident on the news.
Some of us measure our greatness in power (highlighting our arrogance). But sometimes our greatness can be measured in how gracious we can be in losing (in a competition that is important to us even if it's not so important in the total scheme of things). What I saw on stage in the ocsars was the producer of La La Land rush to correct a mistake and give the award to his competitor. To me, it's little things like this that make us great and is a wonderful example to our children.
I agree that La La Land people were very gracious.
But realistically, what were their choices?
I agree that La La Land people were very gracious.
But realistically, what were their choices?
It would have been corrected but it didn't have to be by the La La Land producer at that moment. That's what was gracious.
I agree that La La Land people were very gracious.
But realistically, what were their choices?
It would have been corrected but it didn't have to be by the La La Land producer at that moment. That's what was gracious.
It had a good twist at the end... I didn't see that one coming.