'Oh F**k': The Moment Stage Hand Blew Whistle On Biggest Oscar Screw-Up Ever
Feb. 28 2017, Updated 5:12 p.m. ET
The Oscars finished out with an insane flub live on air Sunday night, when the award for Best Picture was handed to the wrong film, La La Land, after presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the incorrect envelope.
A report from Jeffrey Fleishman backstage revealed the jaw-dropping moment when workers backstage realized the mistake, with one stage hand even blurting out: "Oh, f**k. Oh my God. He got the wrong envelope."
Sadly, by the time it was discovered that Moonlight was the rightful winner of the award, the three producers for La La Land were well into their acceptance speeches. In fact, Fred Berger was still in the middle of speaking when fellow producer Jordan Horowitz cut in to announce that Moonlight had won.
"By the way, we lost," Berger finally blurted out to the crowd, dejected.
Meanwhile, the cast of La La Land was in for a real shock when hearing the news on stage, especially Emma Stone.
Later backstage, the Best Actress winner said of the shocking mix-up: "I f*****g love Moonlight. God, I love Moonlight so much. . .Of course, it was an amazing thing to hear La La Land. I think we all would have loved to win Best Picture, but we are so excited for Moonlight. I think it is one of the best films of all time, so I was pretty beside myself."
But director Damien Chazelle was not quite as good natured about the blunder.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that counts the Oscar ballots, issued a statement that seemed to take the blame for the whole ordeal.
"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."
This will certainly go down in Oscar history!
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