Academy president writes note to members on Oscars La La Land / Moonlight snafu
'Changes will be implemented to ensure this never happens again'
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Days after that unprecedented Oscars blunder and the world is still conversation over exactly what led to La La Land accidentally being announced Best Picture when Moonlight had won the award.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has finally sent a letter to Academy members addressing the situation, revealing "changes will be implemented to ensure this never happens again.”
“By now, thanks to non-stop coverage over the past few days, we all know that the wrong envelope and the problems that ensued were caused by the failure of [PricewaterhouseCoopers’] accountants to follow established protocols and their delay in immediately remedying the situation,” she wrote.
PwC - who were in charge of handling the winners’ envelopes - have taken full responsibility for the error, with Brian Cullinan - who was Tweeting during the awards - being blamed.
Isaacs also praised those caught up in the scuffle, saying: “we are all proud of the spirit and enthusiasm of all the presenters, including Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, and filmmakers, especially those from Moonlight and La La Land.” Read the full letter below.
Isaacs has since stated both Cullinan and colleague Martha Ruiz will not be working any future Oscars, slightly unsurprising, especially considering a conversation with Gary Natoli - a veteran Oscars stage manager - that happened pre-ceremony.
“We don’t usually talk about that,” Natoli explained, referring to the ceremony going wrong. “But I guess Brian had done an interview where he was asked about it, so he came up to John and me and told us that in the interview, he said, ‘Well, we would tell the stage managers and check with each other and react.’ And then he said to us, ‘Is that what we do?’”
“I said, ‘If you know who the winner is, you don’t need to check with each other. You need to immediately go out and rectify the situation, ideally before the wrong winners get to the mic.’ And he said, ‘OK, good, that’s what we thought.’” Catch up with all the latest on the snafu here.
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