OSCAR 2017 /Are these people responsible for Oscars La La Land gaffe

Are these people responsible for Oscars La La Land gaffe



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The two accountants in charge of the Oscars results admitted before the show that they had no plan B if the winners were read out wrong, it has emerged.

An investigation is continuing into how La La Land was wrongly named Best Picture rather than the triumphant Moonlight at last night's ceremony in Los Angeles.

Only two people know the Oscars winners list and supervise the counting procedures - PwC tax adviser Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan an accountant who is the chairman of PwC's US board.





Just days before the showcase event, they told the Huffington Post that they were unsure of the exact procedure in the event that the wrong actor or film was named as a winner in any given category since such a mistake had never been made in the awards' 88-year history.



Cullinan said: 'We would make sure that the correct person was known very quickly. Whether that entails stopping the show, us walking onstage, us signalling to the stage manager — that's really a game-time decision, if something like that were to happen. Again, it's so unlikely.'

There was disaster at the ceremony on Sunday night when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as winner rather than the triumphant Moonlight.

Beatty blamed the epic mishap on being given the wrong envelope, saying he had seen the name Emma Stone from 'La La Land' when he opened his envelope.

PwC, a leading auditor and one of the largest professional services firms in the world, this morning apologized and said presenters had 'mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope'.



However, the exact circumstances of how the mishap unfolded are not yet clear and no particular individual has been blamed.

Cullinan, in his fourth year in the role, and Ruiz, in her third year, are responsible for manually counting the 7,000 votes made by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and are the only two people to know the full list of winners before the ceremony.

They were earlier seen arriving on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre, showcasing their matching briefcases filled with the 24 winners cards, which they each give out at either side of the stage to the presenters of the awards.

Ruiz had told the BBC beforehand that she would be stage left and Cullinan would be stage right.



As the shambolic episode unfolded on stage, and after La La Land actors and crew had been halted during their acceptance speech, Cullinan could be seen on stage clutching a red envelope while both were forced to intervene on stage amidst the confusion and chaos.

Backstage, a confused Emma Stone later said that she was still holding her winner's card in her hand when best picture was announced, but there are in fact two identical sets of cards.

A spokesman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said this morning: '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.'

Ruiz graduated from California State University - Los Angeles with a B.S. in Business and an emphasis in Accounting and has been with PwC for 20 years, working her way up to the position of partner.

According to IMDB, Cullinan is the lead partner for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The role includes the annual balloting for the Academy Awards - something he has been involved in since 2014.

He also serves as PwC's US Board Chairman and is on the firm's Global Board. Cullinan, who has 30 years experience in the industry, is also managing partner for PwC's Southern California practice.



In a recent interview with Financial News, Cullinan revealed that the job of organising the awards does not come up for tender.

'As long as our relationship is good and strong and we do a good job, which we always do, the academy has been pleased I think with how we've been involved, hew said.

'It's such a long term relationship that we know intricately how everything works, the timing of it, the process that we use, and they have absolute trust in us and what we do.

'It's just been a good, long standing relationship. We hope we're doing this 83 years from now as well.'

A number of posts about last night's Oscars on his Twitter account appeared to have been removed this morning.

Ahead of Sunday's event the pair explained in an interview that two sets of envelopes are on site during the event.