Actor Warren Beatty has come out to explain his side of the story involving a recent mistake made during the 2017 Oscars ceremony, in which the film “La La Land” was given an award that had actually been won by the film “Moonlight.”
'La La Land' was given the award meant for 'Moonlight'
Toward the end of the ceremony, Beatty had presented the award with Faye Dunaway for “Best Picture.” According to reports, Beatty looked confused and paused before handing the over to Dunaway, who then told him, “You’re impossible!” on stage. After “La La Land” had been announced as the winner, Beatty could be heard saying that the card said Emma Stone was the winner, despite the category not being awarded to specific actors, but to the film overall.
Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt had been able to make a speech thanking the Academy for the win. Shortly afterward, however, Horowitz was informed of the mistake and announced that “Moonlight” had been the real winner.
Beatty tried to explain what happened from his perspective on stage, and claimed that he wasn’t trying to be funny, leading him to be heckled by host Jimmy Kimmel, who later blamed himself on stage. “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins then came on stage with the film’s cast to issue a speech.
Reportedly, only two people, Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, were aware of who won before they were announced during the event. Added to that, duplicate envelopes are created for each category, which is believed to have been the cause of the incident.
There is still an investigation looking into just what went wrong
According to a statement, Beatty claims that he did not intentionally say anything during the presentation because he realized something was wrong when he read the card saying "Best Actress." He then gave the card to Dunaway for the sake of protocol, who then read “La La Land” as being the winner.
He also hinted that he attempted to tell Dunaway that something was going on before she read the winner.
Commenters noticed that Beatty’s unusual behavior during the event could give validity to the claim that he was aware something was wrong and tried to stop the accident.
Reportedly, Beatty’s representatives have demanded that the Academy issue a statement exonerating Beatty over the incident. The Academy has issued a statement that they were investigating what could have gone wrong during the ceremony.
