Here’s How The 2018 Oscars Will Prevent Another Snafu

janvier 23, 2018

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If the 89th Academy Awards were a movie, the first act would have started strong (Mahershala Ali!) before losing momentum (Best… Sound Editing?); the second act would have further lost your attention (you don’t have to feel guilty for skipping the In Memoriam); but wow, that third act. There’s squirmy conflict (Casey Affleck winning Best Actor), outrage (Emma Stone over Natalie Portman?), and that twist ending! La La Land was named Best Picture except, oops, it turns out Moonlight actually won. The blame was passed from presenter Warren Beatty to Steve Harvey, but the fault belonged to PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan, who handed Beatty the wrong envelope. PwC is making sure this snafu never happens again.

In the months that followed, PwC met with the academy many times to come up with new protocols and safeguards to prevent such a blunder in the future. [PwC chairman Tim] Ryan revealed six new reforms to the Associated Press [including] PwC partners are [now] prohibited from using cellphones or social media during the show. (Via)

Other new rules include a third PwC balloting partner who will memorize the winners; new balloting partners from last year’s ceremony; a revised procedure for handing off envelopes (“Both the celebrity presenter and a stage manager will confirm that they’ve been given the correct envelope for the category they are about to present”); and training plans for if something else goes cataclysmically wrong. If The Emoji Movie wins Best Actress, PwC is ON IT.

(Via AP)