In what can only be described as the most shocking and possibly biggest disaster in Oscars history, La La Land was originally declared the Best Picture winner. However, that's so not the case. Apparently, there was a huge mistake, and Moonlight is the real winner. It's a huge surprise — and kind of a mess. Whatever the case, there is one question everyone is asking: How did the wrong Best Picture envelope get read? Really, how did Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway end up with the wrong envelope?
It's not entirely clear at this moment in time, but there it appears that the whole mixup is extremely confusing. First of all, some people are blaming Leonardo DiCaprio. Per author Kelly Oxford, DiCaprio had the envelope for Best Actress in his hand. "LEO CARRIED THAT CARD OFFSTAGE PUT IT DOWN WHEN HE SAW WARREN AND WARREN PICKED IT UP," she passionately tweeted.
That truly seems to be one theory (and a likely joke), but, according to Emma Stone, she was holding her Best Actress card the entire time. So how the heck did Beatty and Dunaway have a card with Stone's name on it? Were there two Best Actress cards/envelopes? As BuzzFeed News reporter Susan Cheng wrote, Stone told reporters after the fiasco, "I was holding my Best Actress in a Leading role card the whole time…I’m not sure what happened."
As you can see in this photo shared by ABC News, Beatty is holding an envelope that reads, "Actress in a Leading Role." Still, that does not explain how it ended up in his hands. The only thing that seems possible is that he picked up the wrong card or was handed the wrong one. But, why would there be two Best Actress cards?
According to accountant Brian Cullinan from PwC, the firm who hold onto the winning envelopes and escort them to the ceremony, there are two sets of envelopes. I repeat: there are two sets of envelopes.
"From a security perspective, we double up everything," he told MarketWatch on Saturday, "That’s why there’s two of us [another accountant carries the other briefcase]. We have two briefcases, that are identical, and we have two entire sets of winning envelopes." Doubling up is all about making sure one or the other can get to the awards ceremony in case of traffic or whatever problem might come up.
It's one big flub, and here's hoping soon enough it'll be explained, because I know I certainly want to know how the wrong envelope got into Beatty's hands.
