Oscars: PricewaterhouseCoopers Issues Apology for Best Picture Flub

“And the Oscar goes to..”

Since 1934, PricewaterhouseCoopers has been trusted to tabulate the ballots for the Academy Awards, and once all the counting has been completed, only two people from the accounting firm know the complete list of winners in advance of the envelopes being opened during the ceremony. Not even the Academy’s president knows who won an Oscar before they’re announced.

The only time people tend to take notice of PWC is when we see their employees walking the red carpet with briefcases containing the sealed envelopes or when the ceremony comes to a screeching halt so the host can explain what it is PWC does.

However, during the 89th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, PWC received some major attention for all the wrong reasons. When it came time to announce the Best Pictures, PWC mistakenly provided the presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, with a duplicate of Emma Stone’s Best Actress envelope instead. As Beatty opened the envelope and looked at the card inside, he could tell something was amiss, so he hesitated announcing the winner. But when he showed the card to Dunaway, she must’ve assumed he was struggling to read it, so she announced La La Land as the winner. Whoops!

PricewaterhouseCoopers has now issued an apology for the epic flub:

“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 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.

“We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”

Or, maybe it was another M. Night Shyamalan twist…

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