Biggest Embarrassment in Oscar History: La La Land winning Best Picture, then loses to Moonlight because of an envelope error. The picture below confirms that Beatty was holding the "Best Actress in a Leading Role" envelope.
We should probably lay-off Beatty and Dunaway, who were clearly handed the wrong envelope, you could even see it in the replay Beatty looking for another card in the envelope because he clearly saw "Emma Stone, La La Land." He did, however, throw Dunaway under the bus. NOT cool Warren. H basically said "I ain't reading this, here Faye read the envelope." Regardless, this was an epic fuck-up on an even grander scale than Steve Harvey's major hiccup last year at the Miss America Beauty Pageant.
Dunaway is not a happy camper at the moment, and for good reason. Regardless, some poor backstage stagehand will be out of a job and blacklisted for life because of this. That's Hollywood for ya. All in all just a badly managed situation. So there you have it, Moonlight wins Best Picture.
Meanwhile, my editor over at AwardsDaily, Sasha Stone, left the ceremony before Best Picture was announced to beat L.A. traffic. She must not be happy at the moment. She missed an Oscar moment of historic proportions. Something that will forever live in infamy. Kimmel + this fuckup made it one of the most memorable Oscar telecasts I have ever seen. She did, however, in the 11th hour, pick Moonlight to win Best Picture in her annual predictions. Congrats Sasha! I can't think of anybody else that predicted Barry Jenkins' film to win.
Even the Academy's Twitter account got confused ....
PWC issued the following statement after the show:
“We sincerely apologize to “Moonlight,” “La La Land,” Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.
We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
— PriceWaterhouseCoopers