Oscars 2017 will go down in history — for all the wrong reasons. When the time came to announce Best Picture, presenter Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) took a long pause, and his co-presenter Faye Dunaway (Chinatown, 1974) announced, “La La Land!”
There was one big problem — the real winner was Moonlight, and it fell to La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz to say, “I’m sorry, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture.” He added further, “This is not a joke, come up here!” The La La Land producer held up the right card, which read “Moonlight.”
“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,” PricewaterhouseCoopers said in an official statement, posted on Twitter. “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.”
— PwC US (@PwCUS) February 27, 2017
Beatty later explained that he immediately recognized the problem. He hadn’t paused before announcing Best Picture for dramatic effect, as the crowd assumed. “I opened the envelope and it said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye,” Beatty said before leaving the stage.
You can clearly see Faye Dunaway holding the wrong “Actress In A Leading Role” envelope #envelopegate #oscars2017 pic.twitter.com/ifd5U1z5jZ
— Peter Krajewski (@VoodooMediaTV) February 27, 2017
Emma Stone (The Help, 2011) had actually won Best Actress for her role in La La Land.
Apparently, the mix-up went beyond the snafu onstage. Even the website gave La La Land Best Picture, according to this Twitter user.
Even the #Oscars website gave the wrong oscar to #lalaland – then correct to #Moonlight #oscarsfail #oscars17 pic.twitter.com/94dE2QxlMw
— Kenneth Webb (@kennethw) February 27, 2017
Naturally, Twitter had a field day with the news. The snafu sent four separate hashtags viral: #EnvelopeGate, #Oscarsfail, #MoonlightGate, and #PriceWaterHouseCoopers. Many made political jokes like this one:
Every Hillary voter's thought process this morning. Some Trump voters too. #Oscars #envelopegate #PricewaterhouseCoopers (via @KaraCalavera) pic.twitter.com/8pXttAfnEA
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) February 27, 2017
Some tweeted #NotMyOscars, mocking the snafu and playing off of conservative anti-Oscar protests. One user tweeted, “Hollywood hasn’t lost so big since November 8.”
https://twitter.com/Txguy08/status/836100906148036608
Some said they were “waiting to see how they try and blame President Trump and Putin for this.”
Waiting to see how they try and blame President Trump and Putin for this.
I call it #Karma.
— 🌸 Pink Lady 4 Trump🌸 (@pink_lady56) February 27, 2017
“LIBERALS have a habit of calling the wrong winner.”
LIBERALS have a habit of calling the wrong winner…#Oscars2017 #LALALAND #MoonlightGate #FakeNews #POTUS #ShesNotAnyonesPresident pic.twitter.com/XhmtH6crWF
— LORI HENDRY TEXT TRUMP TO 88022 (@Lrihendry) February 27, 2017
Here’s a wonderful moment when Star Wars fans get revenge.
#oscarsfail Third time's a charm. pic.twitter.com/VyVQojgovx
— Jeannine Roques (@JroqNola) February 27, 2017
The memes are endless.
https://twitter.com/warnerthuston/status/836220696330108928
No one envies the staff at PwC right now…
Well that was awkward #oscars #oscarsfail #bestpicture #fail #oscars2017 #WarrenBeatty #envelope #moonlight #lalaland pic.twitter.com/oumo7NAPIn
— ChatYourPantsPodcast (@ChatYourPants) February 27, 2017
Here’s a brief summary of #EnvelopeGate memes.
The truth about the Oscar drama 😂😂 #oscars #oscars2017 #envelopegate 🤔 pic.twitter.com/DPvexOHwz8
— L. Chris Stewart Esq (@chrisstewartesq) February 27, 2017
Watch the video below.
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