There’s no Hollywood ending for the accountants at the center of the historic Oscars mix-up.
PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz were notified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that they would not be invited to participate in the prestigious ceremony in the future, The Associated Press reported.
The pair were tasked with handling the envelopes revealing the winners on Sunday night, and Cullinan was the one who provided the incorrect best picture card to presenter Warren Beatty, according to Variety.
(left to right) Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Martha L. Ruiz and Brian Cullinan before Sunday night’s historic snafu. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)That led to a now infamous chain of events: Instead of the best picture category, Beatty and co-presenter Faye Dunaway opened a duplicate of Emma Stone’s card for best actress. Dunaway incorrectly assumed that meant La La Land won.
As the La La Land producers gave their victory speeches, it was one of the presumed winners, Jordan Horowitz, left to reveal the mistake after being informed by a stagehand. “There’s a mistake,” Horowitz told the stunned crowd at the Dolby Theatre. “Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.”
The snafu marred what was otherwise a successful Academy Awards telecast.
“(It was a) most beautiful, beautiful, wonderful evening.… Then, of course, there was the last 90 seconds,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told the Associated Press. “And what angered me, I would say, in these last couple days is (the focus on) this 90 seconds and moving to the side the brilliance of the day.”
Compounding their error was the public embarrassment of Cullinan tweeting out photos from backstage, just before he handed Beatty the wrong envelope.
Watch the big Oscars gaffe below.
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