PwC accountants won't work Oscars again following flub, according to Academy
LOS ANGELES -- The president of the film academy says the two accountants responsible for the best picture flub at Sunday's Academy Awards will never work the Oscars again.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs said Wednesday that Brian Cullinan -- the PwC representative responsible for handing over the errant envelope that led to "La La Land" mistakenly being announced as best picture rather than "Moonlight" -- was distracted backstage. He tweeted (and later deleted) a photo of Emma Stone in the wings with her new Oscar minutes before giving presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for best picture.
Cullinan and his colleague, Martha Ruiz, have been permanently removed from all film academy dealings, Boone Isaacs said.
The Academy president broke her silence four days after the biggest blunder in the 89-year history of the Academy Awards. She told The Associated Press that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' relationship with PwC, which has been responsible for tallying and revealing Oscar winners for 83 years, remains under review.
Though the academy released a statement late Monday apologizing to the artists of "Moonlight" and "La La Land," Boone Isaacs said she waited to say more until her team had a better understanding of what led to the error.
She praised presenters Beatty and Dunaway, and host Jimmy Kimmel for gracefully taking charge of the situation. She also lauded "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz, whom she said "went from a nominee to a winner to a presenter in a matter of minutes."
Horowitz, still holding the Oscar he thought he'd won, was the first to announce that "Moonlight" was the actual winner.
Boone Isaacs lamented that "the last 90 seconds" of the telecast have overshadowed what she described as "the most brilliant and wonderful show."
