Warren Beatty, you had one job.
In a stunt that will go done in Oscar history, 'Moonlight' walked away with Best Picture at last night's Academy Awards but not before the Oscar was first awarded to 'La La Land' after a jaw-dropping mix-up backstage.
Biggest #Oscars mix up of all time? Watch the full play-by-play: pic.twitter.com/RT2zGiR798
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 27, 2017
If you're confused, don't worry, everyone is.
What appears to have happened is that Warren Beatty was either handed or picked up the incorrect envelope on his way to present the award with Faye Dunaway, which lead to his stumbling moment above before handing it over to Dunaway who announced 'La La Land' as the winner. The problem was, the envelope in question was a duplicate of the 'Actress in a Leading Role' winner, which announced Emma Stone as that winner for 'La La Land', leading to all the confusion.
Envelope in Warren Beatty’s hands read “ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE” when announcing Best Picture. https://t.co/naq6LCfSrE #Oscars pic.twitter.com/YmXWXcudfu
— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2017
Accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers are the only ones who know the winners prior to their announcement and have stated previously that one of two representatives stand at either side of the stage with identical briefcases full of identical envelopes and hand them to presenters as they walk on stage, which means that what happened last night was probably a comedy of errors.
According to this, sounds like PWC would be the ones responsible for having given Beatty the wrong envelope. #Oscars https://t.co/l8e2w57AGL pic.twitter.com/dhi2q3haJQ
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 27, 2017
Talk about a Hollywood ending.