Just when you think this Oscar story is over, it gets new legs. And the Academy President is promising new steps to ensure it will never happen again.
We should give this Oscar snafu story its own nickname. I vote we name it after the 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat because five days after this event happened, this story still has some legs on it.
In an interview with The Wrap, Oscar stage manager Gary Natoli is setting the record straight what happened after that infamous Oscar flub. Apparently, Natoli is stating Price Waterhouse Cooper accountants Brian Cullinan, and Martha Ruiz did nothing when the wrong winners were announced. Each PwC accountants has their own set of duplicate envelopes and are supposed to memorize all the winners.
In a statement from PwC,
"“Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.”"
Natoli goes a little further and states the PwC “froze” and didn’t do anything until they were pushed to do something by the stage managers. Natoli told The Wrap that lack if action from PwC is what spurred him and others to take control of the situation.
"“I didn’t get on the headset and say, ‘Hey, producers, this is what’s happening. What do we do?’ We took our own initiative and got it done — and if we hadn’t done that, we could have been off the air before it was fixed. I’m proud of the way that we handled it, given the lack of response from PwC.”"
I’m glad the Natoli has given us some context to what happened Oscar night, but at some point, enough is enough. Next year the Academy and PwC will have stronger protocols when it comes to handing out Oscar envelopes. A letter from the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, promises as much. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it reads in part:
"“PwC has accepted full responsibility for the error. Rest assured, changes will be implemented to ensure this never happens again.”"
Next: Oscar Accountants Involved With The Best Picture Mistake Are Out Of A Job
Let’s hope this is the last we have to hear about the Oscar flub and continue to congratulate Moonlight for their historic win for Best Picture.