Historic Night for the Oscars as Envelope Mixup Takes Center Stage
Warren Beatty holds the envelope that caused a stir during the presentation of the Best Picture winner during Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony (AMPAS Photo).
LOS ANGELES - Blame it on the accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper for Sunday night's mixup that had presenter Faye Dunaway erroneously giving "La La Land" the Oscar for Best Picture, only to be corrected, giving "Moonlight" the award after a couple of minutes of onstage chaos.
A stage manager rushed onstage to correct the error, but by then La La Land’s producers had begun thanking the crowd. One, Jordan Horowitz, took to the mike to announce the mistake: “There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.” Beatty tried to explain what happened when Academy Awards host Jimmy Kimmel joked about Miss Universe Pageant host Steve Harvey, who in 2015 announced the wrong winner. Moonlight 's stunned cast and its producers ultimately got onto the stage and delivered brief speeches.
But after all the commotion and hub bub, people are still wondering what exactly happened and even after Warren Beatty who along with Dunaway were presenting the award, tried to explain he was given an envelope for Outstanding Actress Emma Stone of "La La Land," many viewers and audience members still seemed confused.
Today, a close up photograph of the envelope Beatty was holding was labeled as Actress in a Leading Role instead of Best Picture. So it was not the fault of Warren Beatty or Faye Dunaway, who were brought together to honor the 50th anniversary of their iconic 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde."
But little remained of that by the evening's end, but it did lead to a lot of "Bonnie and Clyde" memes all over Twitter and elsewhere by the next day.
Meanwhile, other winners were, as if it matters now, Casey Affleck for Best Actor for "Manchester by the Sea," Damien Chazelle for Best Director for "La La Land;" Viola Davis, Best Supporting Actress for "Fences;" and Mahershala Ali for "Moonlight."
