People's editor makes 'Hidden Fences' gaffe at Oscars

People's editor makes 'Hidden Fences' gaffe at Oscars

NEWS: goo.gl/a3kAcQ



For the second time this year, reporters on the red carpet have muffed up the award-winning films Hidden Figures and Fences.

People's Editor-and-Chief, Jess Cagle, made the first 'Hidden Fences' gaffe of the night at the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday.

'You just happen to have these extraordinary movies like 'Hidden Fences' and Moonlight,' Cagle said.



He quickly realized his mistake, apologized and corrected himself.

But Twitter was having it.

Memes and gifs quickly swarmed social media and were all tagged with #HiddenFences.

The two very much different films, Fences and Hidden Figures, are both best picture nominees, and both feature African-Americans in lead roles, but that's about as far as they go in similarity.

Last month, Jenna Bush Hager suffered an awkward blunder while interviewing singer and actor Pharrell Williams on the red carpet at the Golden Globes when she mixed up the names of the movies.



While speaking with Pharrell, the 35-year-old mentioned his nomination for Hidden Figures, but awkwardly referred to the movie as 'Hidden Fences' having clearly mixed it up with two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington's hit drama Fences.

'So you're nominated for Hidden Fences,' Jenna said, prompting Pharrell to physically grimace, while she carried on with her question.

Fences is based on the 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play about Troy and Rose Maxson.

Wilson's play about an African American family in 1950s Pittsburgh, had already won Tony Awards for the original Broadway cast, and another batch of Tonys for Washington and award-winning Viola Davis in their 2010 revival.



Davis took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Sunday night.

Hidden Figures is based on Margot Lee Shetterly's book about African-American women mathematicians who worked at NASA during the 1960s.

Janelle Monáe, Taraji P Henson and Octavia Spencer starred as Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures.

The award-winning movie tells the story of three black female maths wizards, Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson, who helped launch American astronaut John Glenn into space.

They were known as the 'computers in skirts' who worked on the Redstone, Mercury and Apollo space missions using the limited technology of the time.

African-American women played a crucial role in providing the mathematical data needed to safely complete space missions, including Glenn's pioneering spaceflight in 1962.