Shoulda, woulda, coulda. And now, we find the most crucial moment of the biggest night in entertainment was hijacked by another mistakenly-read card.
Here’s the footage of Warren Beatty calling out La La Land over Moonlight for Best Picture. We know you’ve seen it by now, but goddamn, it bears rewatching to determine exactly how this FUBAR situation came to pass:
Still, Stone seemed to shoot that claim down in some post-Oscars interviews.
Emma Stone on the Best Picture confusion: “I was holding my best actress card the entire time.” #Oscars pic.twitter.com/umVDaUvgH5
— Variety (@Variety) February 27, 2017
Emma Stone: “The investigation continues.” https://t.co/r8LmDWdOD9 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/UqImGY1JiO
— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2017
The thing is, the Oscars organisers actually have two identical cards backstage, meaning each presenter should have gotten one. In a statement, PricewaterhouseCoopers – the accounting form in charge of keeping track of the votes, and of the cards – said they’re “currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”
— PwC LLP (@PwC_LLP) February 27, 2017
Some CSI-level image enhancing from one Aaron Vallely of the Huffington Post revealed that yeah, Beatty must have been handed the duplicate card, ’cause he certainly wasn’t given the one corresponding to Best Picture.
“Actress in a leading role” – who handed that to poor Warren Beatty. Feel so sorry for him. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/0bFg2m5v6M
— Aaron Vallely (@Vallmeister) February 27, 2017
Report from @JeffreyLAT backstage: Mid @LaLaLand acceptance, stage hand in wings said “Oh, f-ck. Oh my God. He got the wrong envelope.”
— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) February 27, 2017
One Twitter user did have a theory for how the spare ended up in his hands, and it involves the focal point of last year’s most exciting Oscars moment.
OMG IT WAS LEO’s FAULT. HE HAD THE ENVELOPE. pic.twitter.com/OJiSbSrFVj
— kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) February 27, 2017
LEO CARRIED THAT CARD OFFSTAGE PUT IT DOWN WHEN HE SAW WARREN AND WARREN PICKED IT UP ??????? #oscars pic.twitter.com/uIOE54oy23
— kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) February 27, 2017
STILL SPEECHLESS pic.twitter.com/qe3NUDWAHM
— Barry Jenkins (@BandryBarry) February 27, 2017
Source: Variety.
Photo: Barry Jenkins / Twitter.