Oscars stage manager on accountants’ Best Picture gaffe: ‘They froze’

Now we’ve had some time to reflect on the fiasco at the Oscars, which resulted in the wrong movie being announced as Best Picture winner, the behind-the-scenes shitshow makes more and more sense.

Handling responsibilities for the card were PwC accountants Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz. Snapping pictures of the stars and not paying enough attention led to the careless handoff of the wrong winner envelope.

Recounting the night to TheWrap, Oscars stage manager Gary Natoli called out the duo for lacking the “disposition” for the job. He admitted to having no idea why the accountants didn’t attempt to rectify the mistake immediately, saying “they froze.”

“I still do not understand the delay,” Natoli told TheWrap. “Brian should have run out there on his own. Martha should have run out there.”

“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.”

Thankfully, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz was a boss and sorted out the mishap almost immediately upon realizing the mistake.

Admittedly, it’s easy to pile on Ruiz and Cullinan for allowing the envelope mix-up to occur. However, messing up the Best Picture winner is a completely avoidable mistake. Nobody had the bright idea to put the category names on the outside of the envelope for people to know what they’re opening? Not taking responsibility and freezing up when the wrong film was called is further proof PcW weren’t doing their jobs properly.

Alas, it was a tough moment for everyone involved. Kudos to Natoli for completely not losing his shit in the big moment. Hopefully, a repeat of the situation never happens again.

[TheWrap]