The veteran actor and Faye Dunaway wrongly announced 'La La Land' as the winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards when 'Moonlight' was the actual winner.
- Feb 27, 2017
AceShowbiz - When you think there couldn't be anything worse than Steve Harvey's flub at the 2015 Miss Universe, a similar mix-up happened at the recently concluded Academy Awards. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who were on hand to present Best Picture at the Sunday, February 26 ceremony, wrongly announced "La La Land" as the winner of the coveted prize when it actually went to "Moonlight".
To make it worse, it wasn't until the cast and crew of the musical movie took the stage to deliver the speeches when they realized the error. "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz called the "Moonlight" gang to the stage, saying, "Guys, I'm sorry. There's a mistake. 'Moonlight', you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke. I'm afraid they read the wrong thing." He then showed the envelope and said, "This is 'Moonlight', the best picture."
"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins eventually came on stage and said, "Even in my dreams, this could not be true. But to hell with dreams, I'm done with it, because this is true. Oh my goodness."
Trying to explain what happened, Beatty said, "I opened the envelope, and it said, 'Emma Stone, 'La La Land'.' That's why I took a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn't trying to be funny." Stone was announced as the winner of Best Actress a few minutes earlier.
Adding to the confusion, Stone said backstage, "I also was holding my best actress in a leading role card that entire time." So, did they give Beatty a wrong category duplicate?
Whatever the case was, host Jimmy Kimmel was ready to take the blame. "Well, I don't know what happened. I blame myself for this," he said, "Let's remember, it's just an awards show. I mean, we hate to see people disappointed, but the good news is we got to see some extra speeches. We have some great movies. I knew I would screw this show up. I really did... I promise I'll never come back."
Meanwhile, celebrities took to Twitter to react to the blunder. Ellen DeGeneres posted ,"Nothing like live TV. Congrats to Moonlight! And to La La Land for such a gracious reaction." Patton Oswalt joked, "Warren Beatty just became the new host of FAMILY FEUD." A confused Andy Cohen tweeted, "CAN THIS YEAR GET ANY F**KING WEIRDER!!?????"
Billy Eichner quipped, "IF ANYONE FROM THE IN MEMORIUM IS STILL ALIVE PLEASE LET US KNOW." Jesse Tyler Ferguson also joked, "Maybe I won an Emmy one of the 5 times I lost! Anything is possible. Congrats to #Moonlight. An amazing and deserving best picture winner!"
Jessica Chastain expressed her shock by tweeting, "Oh my God!!!!" Katy Perry similarly tweeted, "WHAT WAIT OMG."
