Pass/Fail: Hollywood banishes accountants who messed up Oscars finale but they keep jobs

[playahaitian]

Hollywood banishes accountants who messed up Oscars finale

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DON KAPLAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, March 1, 2017, 4:19 PM

They're both free to do your taxes now.

The two accountants responsible for the Academy Awards' most humiliating moment have been banished from Hollywood.

Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz — both high-ranking executives at PricewaterhouseCoopers — are responsible for mixing up the winners' envelopes at Sunday's Oscars and will never return to the ceremony, officials at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday.

You're fired! Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Martha L. Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, will no longer be involved with the Academy Awards.
(CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES)
Cullinan, whose social media accounts featured tons of pictures of him posing with movie stars before they were deleted Monday, had tweeted a photo of Emma Stone from backstage minutes before handing presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for best picture.


Dunaway announced "La La Land" had won, but the real winner was "Moonlight."



Cheryl Boone, the president of the film academy, told the Associated Press that Cullinan's distraction was what caused the mistake — the worst in the award's 89-year history.

She added that the Academy is still deciding if it will retain its 83-year partnership with the accounting firm, which has been responsible for the integrity of the awards.

Martha L. Ruiz and Brian Cullinan from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
(JORDAN STRAUSS/JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP)
Cullinan, a 19-year PwC veteran who has described himself as a "Matt Damon lookalike," had been the firm's lead partner for the Oscars. He had served on PwC's balloting team since 2014.

And the award for Oscars scapegoat goes to ... Brian Cullinan

Ruiz served as the team's co-leader since 2015, but had spent more than 10 years working behind the scenes as part of the firm's balloting group.

 

[playahaitian]

Accountant at center of Oscars blunder was asked not to tweet during show: report

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Brian Cullinan was reportedly asked not to tweet during Sunday’s show.
(CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES)
PETER SBLENDORIO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 3:58 PM

Apparently handing the wrong envelope to presenter Warren Beatty wasn't the only mistake the accountant at the center of Sunday's Oscars gaffe made that night.

PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan — who tweeted a picture of Best Actress winner Emma Stone moments before he gave the card to Beatty — had been instructed not to use social media during the Academy Awards, People reported.

"Brian was asked not to tweet or use social media during the show," a source told the magazine. "He was fine to tweet before he arrived at the red carpet but once he was under the auspices of the Oscar night job, that was to be his only focus."


Cullinan shared the picture of Stone at approximately 9:05 p.m. local time, according to a screengrab shared by People.


Minutes later, Beatty and Faye Dunaway took the stage with the wrong envelope to present Best Picture, with Dunaway mistakenly awarding the honor to "La La Land" instead of the rightful winner, "Moonlight."


13 PHOTOSVIEW GALLERY
Stars react to epic Oscars gaffe
Cullinan has since deleted the photo of Stone and has not yet commented on his role in the epic Oscars gaffe.

"Tweeting right before the Best Picture category was announced was not something that should have happened," the People insider said.


PwC has accepted blame for the incident, with U.S. chairman and senior partner Tim Ryan specifically naming Cullinan and attributing the mistake to "human error" in a comment to USA Today.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences finally addressed the flub in a statement Monday evening, apologizing for what happened but pointing out that PwC has admitted to being the ones who screwed up.

Cullinan handed the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty, prompting Faye Dunaway to announce the wrong winner for Best Picture.
(KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES)
It's unclear if The Academy will continue its 83-year association with the accounting firm, which is in charge of tabulating and delivering Oscars votes.

"The Academy has launched a full-scale review of its relationship with PwC but it is very complicated," the insider told People. "Vote-tallying and the Oscar night job is just one part of what PwC does with the Academy. It is too early to say how this will play out but everyone is of course taking it very very seriously."

Beatty's son Stephen Ira, meanwhile, defended his father's role in the flub with a tweet shortly after the incident.

"I think it was just a mix up! Mistakes happen, especially in a live show," Ira wrote Sunday.

 

[playahaitian]

PricewaterhouseCoopers hires security for accountants responsible for flub after they receive death threats

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Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Martha L. Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, will not be allowed to work the Oscars again after the mix-up.
(CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES)
NICOLE BITETTE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, March 2, 2017, 7:47 AM

It's a mistake no one wants them to live down.

The two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants, Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, who were behind the Best Picture mix-up at Sunday's Academy Awards now have their own bodyguards after receiving death threats, NBC reports.

The accounting giant felt it necessary to hire security for Cullinan and Ruiz after their personal information and pictures of their homes were posted online because of their role in the now-iconic flub.




During the week, Cullinan's wife was out grocery shopping and seen with a bodyguard in a photo obtained by TMZ.

Cullinan was blamed by PwC for handing the wrong envelope to presenter Warren Beatty during the Best Picture announcement. He instead gave the "Bonnie and Clyde" star a duplicate envelope for Best Actress.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has hired security for employees Brian Cullinan, holding red envelope, and Martha L. Ruiz, in red dress, after the Best Picture flub.
(CHRIS PIZZELLO/CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP)

When fellow presenter Faye Dunaway went to read the winner, she only saw "La La Land" and decided to announce it to the world.

While a PwC official told NBC that the two employees "are not going anywhere" — they have been barred from handling the Oscars ever again.

 

[playahaitian]

THE OSCARSP WC HIRES BODYGUARDS After Wave of Death Threats
759
1,717
3/2/2017 1:00 AM PST
EXCLUSIVE

The Oscars fallout is getting scary for the PricewaterhouseCoopers employees responsible for the Best Picture debacle -- they're in such fear for their lives, their bosses have hired security to protect them.

Sources connected to the firm tell TMZ ... PWC decided bodyguards were necessary for Brian Cullinan, Martha Ruiz and their families because of death threats they've received after their role in fumbling the Best Picture and Best Actress envelopes.

Some of the social media threats included, "You f****** idiot, i will f*** you every day" ... and "I hope you get fired and get cancer."

We're told PWC felt pictures that surfaced online of Ruiz and Cullinan's homes made it clear something had to be done to watch their backs.

As we reported ... Brian and Martha will NOT lose their jobs, but they won't be allowed to work the Academy Awards again.

 

[Amajorfucup]

PricewaterhouseCoopers hires security for accountants responsible for flub after they receive death threats

 

[knightmelodic]

The only reason that white boy went down is because if they just fired her it would have been a massive shit storm. If it was two white guys you never would have heard another peep.

 

[geechiedan]

The only reason that white boy went down is because if they just fired her it would have been a massive shit storm. If it was two white guys you never would have heard another peep.

he messed up pretty obviously..they even have photo timeline like the kennedy assassination to show where and when he fucked up.
She got fired because when the flub was discovered she and he had the correct envelopes and neither rushed out to stop the shit show... all of 3 minutes (forever in production time) passed before anyone did anything.

He fucked up first but she fucked up for not covering for it.

 

[knightmelodic]

he messed up pretty obviously..they even have photo timeline like the kennedy assassination to show where and when he fucked up.
She got fired because when the flub was discovered she and he had the correct envelopes and neither rushed out to stop the shit show... all of 3 minutes (forever in production time) passed before anyone did anything.

He fucked up first but she fucked up for not covering for it.

I hear ya man but that ain't my point.

 

[ThaBurgerPimp]

If they were Black they both would have been fired on the spot

 

[ViCiouS]

The only reason that white boy went down is because if they just fired her it would have been a massive shit storm. If it was two white guys you never would have heard another peep.

he fucked up but she gets to share blame -just because

 

[ViCiouS]

he messed up pretty obviously..they even have photo timeline like the kennedy assassination to show where and when he fucked up.
She got fired because when the flub was discovered she and he had the correct envelopes and neither rushed out to stop the shit show... all of 3 minutes (forever in production time) passed before anyone did anything.

He fucked up first but she fucked up for not covering for it.

I think you need to rewatch the video - if I'm not mistaken she is the one that came out with the right envelope while LaLa was starting to celebrate - she was carrying the backup case and didn't know the wrong envelope had been given until Faye

 

[kingdon777]

I personally don't think there were two evelopes. I think it was snow - ball mentality. If white pepole could ram a rod up your ass every night to get a rise, they would.

My .0235 cents.

 

[cocobeauty]

Why do people feel the need threaten others all the time over simple things? Or something like this? It's really some mentally ill people in this world.

 

[playahaitian]

PWC Accountant Wanted to Make Appearance at Oscars (EXCLUSIVE)
By Ramin Setoodeh,
Brent Lang

AP
MARCH 2, 2017 | 03:37PM PT


UPDATED: Unlike most accountants, PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Brian Cullinan enjoyed the spotlight. He commonly tweeted selfies with celebrities and relished his trips down the red carpet at the Academy Awards.

Before he became famous for his involvement in handing over the wrong envelope on Sunday’s telecast, he’d been angling for a spot on the stage. Cullinan had pitched Oscar producers on doing a sketch involving him and his colleague Martha Ruiz, interacting with host Jimmy Kimmel, according to two sources with knowledge of the exchange. But the idea was shot down.​

A representative from PwC denied that Cullinan wanted to perform a skit, but said that he met with the show’s producers to discuss a possible onstage appearance.

In past years, the Oscars accountants were sometimes introduced on TV, with their briefcases in tow, to explain their role in keeping the Oscar winners safe. Last year, Chris Rock parodied that tradition: He introduced three Asian-American kids as pint-sized accountants, which some viewers interpreted as offensive. The moment caught PwC executives by surprise, as they hadn’t been informed about the routine.

“It is standard protocol for PwC to have conversations with the show’s producers about the firm’s involvement in the show,” a representative from PwC told Variety in a statement. “After last year’s sketch when the firm was cast in a defamatory way in front of millions of people, Brian Cullinan spoke with the producers to ensure that the firm would not be cast in the same light. Brian did not want to perform a sketch during the show.”

In recent days, there have been questions about what led to the embarrassing finale of Sunday’s Oscars. In the minutes prior to best-picture category, when Cullinan was supposed to be giving the best picture envelope to presenter Warren Beatty, he seemed distracted. He was taking photos on his phone of Emma Stone with her best-actress trophy that he tweeted out.​

Beatty received the wrong envelope and his co-presenter Faye Dunaway accidentally named “La La Land”—instead of real winner “Moonlight”— as best picture. When the mistake was corrected three minutes later, it was because of a stagehand, not the PwC accountants, who are supposed to memorize all the winners and storm the stage in the unlikely occurrence of a mix-up.

PwC has apologized for the mistake. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told the Associated Press that Cullinan and Ruiz wouldn’t work on the Oscars again. “They have one job to do. One job to do! Obviously there was a distraction,” Boone Isaacs said.

It’s unclear if the Academy will continue to employ the accounting firm, which has an 83-year relationship with the nonprofit organization. Isaacs sent a letter to Academy members Thursday assuring, “Rest assured changes will be implemented to ensure this never happens again.”

 

[playahaitian]

I think you need to rewatch the video - if I'm not mistaken she is the one that came out with the right envelope while LaLa was starting to celebrate - she was carrying the backup case and didn't know the wrong envelope had been given until Faye

New Photos Show PWC Accountant Tweeting, Mixing Envelopes Backstage at Oscars (EXCLUSIVE)
By Lawrence Yee,

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
MARCH 1, 2017 | 10:11AM PT


Variety has obtained exclusive photos of PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan — the man behind the infamous envelope mix-up — leading up to and during Sunday’s gaffe in which “La La Land” was erroneously named best picture over “Moonlight.”

PWC has already confirmed Cullinan, a top executive at the firm, as the person responsible for giving presenter Warren Beatty the incorrect envelope.

The newly uncovered photographs (see below) not only show Cullinan engaged on his phone shortly before the “La La Land” miscommunication, he’s also photographed mixing two red envelopes backstage alongside Beatty and best actor winner Casey Affleck, who had just exited the stage, which would dispute PWC’s official explanation that Cullinan grabbed the wrong envelope from a “backup pile,” and shows he was likely always in possession of both the best actress envelope (which was given to presenter Warren Beatty) and the best picture envelope, the night’s two final awards.

A spokesman for PricewaterhouseCoopers was not available for comment.

In the exclusive images below, Cullinan can be seen on his mobile phone at 9:04 p.m. PST, according to the metadata on the photographer’s camera (his Emma Stone tweet was posted at 9:05 p.m. and later deleted). Meanwhile Beatty and Dunaway had taken the stage at 9:03 p.m., putting the PWC executive on social media at the start of Beatty and Dunaway’s presentation.

“He feels very, very terrible and horrible. He is very upset about this mistake,” PWC chairman Tim Ryan told Variety on Monday. “While I am concerned I hope we will be judged on how quickly we reacted and owned up to the issue.”

The Academy has since apologized to the “La La Land” and “Moonlight” filmmakers, as well as Beatty and Dunaway, and continues to investigate the matter.

Update 12:45 p.m. PT: Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz will no longer serve as PWC’s accountants for the Academy Awards. The duo remain as partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to a spokesman.

 

[playahaitian]

See the timeline below:

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
8:53:23 p.m.

On stage: The best actress montage is playing.

Backstage: Warren Beatty (above) is hugging best actor winner Casey Affleck, who just came off stage. In Beatty’s hand is a white notecard with his best picture introduction on it. Brian Cullinan is standing to Beatty’s right. Cullinan is clearly carrying TWO envelopes in his hand — odds are very likely these are the last two categories of the night: best actress (which he would later give Beatty) and best picture, as Cullinan had already given his best actor envelope to presenter Brie Larson minutes before on stage right.

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Above: A closer look at the above photo shows not one but two red envelopes in Cullinan’s hand, along with his cell phone.
36 Seconds Later…

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
8:53:59 p.m.

On stage: The best actress montage continues to play.

Backstage: Beatty is watching the monitor backstage, with Cullinan right next to him.

9:03 p.m.

On stage: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway take the Dolby stage to present the final prize.

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
9:04:14 p.m.

On stage: Beatty and Dunaway introduce best picture.

Backstage: Emma Stone getting her photo taken backstage, including one by Brian Cullinan.

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
9:04:41 p.m.

On stage: Best picture montage plays.

Back: Brian Cullinan prepares to tweet his photo of Emma Stone. Stone can be seen in the background.

ANDREW WALKER/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
9:04:47 p.m.

On stage: Best picture montage continues to play.

Backstage: Brian Cullinan tweeting his photo of Emma Stone.

9:05 p.m.

Brian Cullinan’s tweet of Emma Stone is posted on Twitter.

And the Oscar goes to…

CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
9:08 p.m.

Onstage: Faye Dunaway incorrectly announces “La La Land” as best picture. Three and a half minutes later, Cullinan, center, emerges onstage and is handed the correct envelope by PWC’s Martha Ruiz (red dress).

CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
The aftermath is now Hollywood history.

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/oscar-best-picture-gaffe-brian-cullinan-envelope-1201999283/

 

[playahaitian]

Interesting how THIS level of investigation is never put forth on voter fraud, illegal acts by the Executive office of this government or an armed police force systematically murdering a segment of the population on video.

 

[MT Hermit]

Interesting how THIS level of investigation is never put forth on voter fraud, illegal acts by the Executive office of this government or an armed police force systematically murdering a segment of the population on video.

 

[playahaitian]

The Oscars Stage Manager Tells All, Says He Was Stunned by PwC Accountant Incompetence

By Hunter HarrisShareTweetSharePin ItEmailComment

barred the two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants responsible for the Best Picture mix-up from future ceremonies, but the accountants in question — Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz — have reportedly gotten a security detail after they received threats in the wake of the fallout. Now, veteran Oscars stage manager Gary Natoli is spilling all the tea: When Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway erroneously named La La Land Best Picture instead of the actual winner Moonlight, he says Cullinan and Ruiz were stunningly incompetent. Natoli detailed the behind-the-scenes happenings for the Wrap, and his account is dripping with drama:

Natoli broke down what happened next:

“I was in the wings stage left with Jimmy [Kimmel] when they announced La La Land. We watched for about 10 more seconds, and during that entire time Martha was no more than five feet away from us. When La La Land was announced, she did not try to get my attention, she did not say anything.

And she’s supposed to have memorized the winners.”

Natoli said he was distracted with work on the night’s would-be last gag, involving Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel. Then, he got a fateful call on his headseat alerting him that a mistake might have been made:


“As I was taking Matt’s wife to the side of the house, I heard John Esposito on my headset say, ‘Brian says he didn’t think they said the right winner. Can you have Martha check her envelope?’ That was the first time I heard anything about it, and it was probably a minute, or a minute and 15 seconds, from the time Faye announced the wrong winner.”

So now there’s suspicion, drama, and intrigue — this is a real yarn! Natoli was busy with the Damon gag, though, so he asked a collegue to have Ruiz open her envelope and fact-check the announcement.

“She was standing there with the envelope in her hand, very low-key,” he said of Ruiz. “And John Esposito said that Brian was very low-key too, no urgency.
But we had Martha open the envelope, and it said Moonlight.”

In the first few minutes of the confusion, it seemed like Dunaway had just announced the wrong winner, not that Beatty had been handed the wrong envelope. Here’s where the stage manager gets really incredulous:

“I still do not understand the delay,” Natoli told TheWrap. “Brian should have run out there on his own. Martha should have run out there. I didn’t get on the headset and say, ‘Hey, producers, this is what’s happening. What do we do?’ We took our own initiative and got it done — and if we hadn’t done that, we could have been off the air before it was fixed. I’m proud of the way that we handled it, given the lack of response from PwC.”

And the rest, as they say, is history … and/or a thrilling drama that would make for a good Feud season three: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences versus PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

[geechiedan]

I heard John Esposito on my headset say, 'Brian says he didn't think they said the right winner. Can you have Martha check her envelope?' That was the first time I heard anything about it, and it was probably a minute, or a minute and 15 seconds, from the time Faye announced the wrong winner."

Because Natoli was no longer in the wings near Ruiz, he radioed another stage manager to find Ruiz and have her open the second Best Picture envelope. "She was standing there with the envelope in her hand, very low-key," he said of Ruiz. "And John Esposito said that Brian was very low-key too, no urgency. But we had Martha open the envelope, and it said 'Moonlight.'"

Natoli said he immediately told the stage managers in the wings, "Get the accountants out there!" But he said both Cullinan and Ruiz hesitated. "John was trying to get Brian to go on stage, and he wouldn't go," he said. "And Martha wouldn't go. We had to push them on stage, which was just shocking to me."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/oscars/oscars-stage-manager-details-pwc-accountants’-incompetence-‘they-froze’-exclusive/ar-AAnH45i?li=AAn4eAA

thats why they BOTH she and him got removed from the awards

 

[playahaitian]

I heard John Esposito on my headset say, 'Brian says he didn't think they said the right winner. Can you have Martha check her envelope?' That was the first time I heard anything about it, and it was probably a minute, or a minute and 15 seconds, from the time Faye announced the wrong winner."

Because Natoli was no longer in the wings near Ruiz, he radioed another stage manager to find Ruiz and have her open the second Best Picture envelope. "She was standing there with the envelope in her hand, very low-key," he said of Ruiz. "And John Esposito said that Brian was very low-key too, no urgency. But we had Martha open the envelope, and it said 'Moonlight.'"

Natoli said he immediately told the stage managers in the wings, "Get the accountants out there!" But he said both Cullinan and Ruiz hesitated. "John was trying to get Brian to go on stage, and he wouldn't go," he said. "And Martha wouldn't go. We had to push them on stage, which was just shocking to me."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/oscars/oscars-stage-manager-details-pwc-accountants’-incompetence-‘they-froze’-exclusive/ar-AAnH45i?li=AAn4eAA

thats why they BOTH she and him got removed from the awards

wow...if that is an accurate account?

I could see them firing too, they got off lucky

cause they essentially DAMAGED the brand and reputation of their company that was damn near pristine BEFORE this.

 

[playahaitian]

The Oscars and PwC Post-Envelope Flub: Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Steve Pond | February 27, 2017 @ 7:50 AM

Getty Images

The Academy’s longtime accounting firm has apologized for the envelope mixup that plunged the end of the 89th Academy Awards into chaos, but it may take more than a two-paragraph apology to repair the relationship between PwC and the Academy.

On the biggest of stages, working for the client of 83 years that gets the firm formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers more publicity than anything else it does, the company made two huge errors that damaged the credibility of the Academy and the Oscars.

First, one of the company’s two Oscars balloting leaders gave the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty, who was walking onto the stage to hand out the last and biggest award of the night.

Second, when the wrong winner was announced, the two PwC staffers who had all the winners memorized failed to correct the error for two full minutes, letting three “La La Land” producers make acceptance speeches before that film’s team was informed that “Moonlight” had actually won the top award.


Also Read:Oscars 2017: The Full Spectrum of Stars' Responses to Justin Timberlake Taking 'Trolls' Song Into Audience (Photos)

Yes, there is some blame to go around. Warren Beatty should have looked at the envelope in his hand and realized that it said “ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE” on the front, not “BEST PICTURE.” (In his defense, the front of this year’s envelopes was not nearly as legible as it has been in recent years. And in PwC’s defense, the Academy controls the envelope design, not PwC.)

Even so, when Beatty opened the envelope, he should have seen that beneath the words “AND THE OSCAR GOES TO EMMA STONE LA LA LAND,” it said “Actress in a Leading Role.” He clearly knew something was wrong by the way he hesitated, and he shouldn’t have just shown the envelope to Dunaway so she could mistakenly announce “La La Land.”

But Beatty didn’t pick the envelope himself out of a stack. PwC’s Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz are the dispensers of the Oscars envelopes, and it’s their responsibility to make sure everybody gets the right one. Beatty got the wrong one, and that’s PwC’s fault.



It’s also PwC’s fault that the error wasn’t corrected in the 30 seconds it took the “La La Land” crew to get to the stage. Cullinan and Ruiz both knew that an error had been made as soon as Dunaway said, “La La Land,” but it was nearly two minutes before the Oscars’ lead stage manager, Gary Natoli, was sent on stage to collect the incorrect envelope.

It was two and a half minutes before “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz, the epitome of grace in an impossible situation, told the “Moonlight” crew that they’d actually won.

The delay not only embarrassed the “La La Land” producers who thought they’d won, it embarrassed the Academy and made a mockery of the longstanding contention that the PwC team has orders to immediately correct any errors.




The company’s reputation is based on decades of preserving the integrity of the Oscars vote — and while some folks in the Governors Ball were talking about it being a “fireable offense,” it seems unlikely to reach that level.

But the error turned the “Moonlight” Best Picture win into a footnote, at least temporarily, and that does a huge disservice to a remarkable film that pulled off a stunning upset. It overshadowed the big strides that the Academy, so recently under fire for a narrow and parochial viewpoint, made on a moving night that was all about inclusion, diversity and tolerance.

And it led to jokes and knee-jerk reactions that maybe all Oscar voting was tarnished, even though this mess had nothing to do with incorrect vote counts or tainted ballots.

The last significant snafu with Oscar envelopes came in 1996, when Quincy Jones (who produced the show that year) and Sharon Stone presented two music awards, and found themselves on the stage without an envelope when it came time to announce the second category.


That problem was remedied when Jones ran into the wings and was told the name of the winner by a Price-Waterhouse rep (the company had yet to add the Coopers to its name), and afterwards the accountants took the blame for that one, too. A review of the tape, though, showed that they were simply falling on their swords to avoid pinning the snafu on Stone, who clearly gave the second category’s envelope away to one of the first category’s winners.

This time, though, PwC isn’t trying to make a movie star look better. The company has blown it big time in the biggest spotlight.

http://www.thewrap.com/oscars-pwc-pricewaterhousecoopers-can-marriage-be-saved/

 

[playahaitian]

but on the real...

why this a big punishment?

Like they were EVER gonna be at the Oscars again

even if this error never happened?

 

[playahaitian]

So almost EVERYONE says this does SERIOUS damage to their reputation but only ONE says no?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/business/media/pwc-oscars-best-picture.html?_r=0

 

[playahaitian]

PwC’s hard-won reputation under threat after Oscars flub
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View Story
How the ‘Moonlight’-‘La La Land’ mixup unfolded
Did the most shocking moment in Oscars history result from Warren Beatty being handed the wrong envelope?

• The ‘La La Land’ producer who declared ‘Moonlight’ the winner is a hero
• ‘Moonlight’ steps into the spotlight after a stunning mixup
• Jimmy Kimmel blends political humor with Hollywood teasing

For London-headquartered PwC, it’s anything but funny.



After confusion, ‘Moonlight’ wins best picture






0:00
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4:21




According to Nigel Currie, an independent London-based branding specialist with decades’ worth of industry experience, this mistake is ‘‘as bad a mess-up as you could imagine.’’

‘‘They had a pretty simple job to do and messed it up spectacularly,’’ he said. ‘‘They will be in deep crisis talks on how to deal with it.’’

Brands go to extraordinary lengths to protect their image and reputation and to be seen as good corporate citizens. History is littered by examples when a hard-won reputation nosedives — from sporting legends Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong to business giants like BP following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

Currie says PwC has no other option than to front-up immediately and explain exactly what happened to contain the damage to its reputation.

‘‘They are absolutely in the spotlight for next week and for longer probably as it unfolds,’’ he said. ‘‘They have to show what happened.’’

PwC, which was formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers and originated in London over a century ago, has been quick to apologize but has yet to fully explain what happened.

‘‘The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected,’’ it said in a statement. ‘‘We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.’’

PwC’s representatives at the awards ceremony were Brian Cullinan, a partner at the firm and, according to his bio on the company’s website, a Matt Damon lookalike, and Martha Ruiz, the second woman to serve as a PwC Oscars tabulator.

Cullinan is the lead partner for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including the annual balloting for the Oscars ceremony. He has been part of the balloting team since 2014.

Ruiz, a 19-year veteran at PwC who specializes in providing tax compliance and advisory services to entertainment clients in southern California, joined Cullinan as the Oscars balloting co-leader in 2015.

In a promotional video on the company’s website ahead of Sunday’s show, Cullinan said he and Ruiz are the only two who knew who the winners were on the night of the awards.

‘‘There are 24 categories. We have the winners in sealed envelopes that we hold and maintain throughout the evening and hand those to the presenters before they walk out on stage,’’ he said.

Cullinan said PwC’s relationship with the Academy Awards is testament to the firm’s reputation in the market for being ‘‘a firm of integrity, of accuracy and confidentiality and all of those things that are really key to the role we have with the Academy in counting these ballots.’’

‘‘But I think it’s really symbolic of how we’re thought of beyond this role and how our clients think of us and I think it’s something we take very seriously and take a lot of pride in.’’

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/20...-oscars-mix/pMTzf037EfxeHbyTLMAzfK/story.html

 

[playahaitian]

PwC's Oscars flop may not do long-term damage to its reputation
PricewaterhouseCoopers, its handling of the balloting process for the Academy Awards suddenly turned into a public-relations nightmare.


One of the two accountants in charge of Oscars vote counting mistakenly handed actor Warren Beatty the wrong envelope for the best picture award, sparking the chaotic ending of the Academy Awards ceremony, a spokesman for the accounting firm said Monday.

Beatty was handed the wrong envelope during Sunday night’s show by Brian Cullinan, a managing partner and its lead partner for the Oscars balloting, PwC spokesman Mao-Lin Shen said. Shen declined to elaborate, but the firm is continuing to investigate what happened.


While many think smart cities are about advanced digital infrastructure, a truly smart city will also use technology to tap into the wisdom of its citizens.



When he opened the envelope for the best picture award, a confused Beatty showed it to actress and fellow presenter Faye Dunaway, who proclaimed “La La Land” when the award, in fact, belonged to “Moonlight.”

The two presenters had been reading from a card announcing that Emma Stone was named best actress for her work in “La La Land,” the award that had occurred just before the best picture announcement.

Moments before the mistake, Cullinan had posted a photo on Twitter of Stone holding her Oscar; it wasn’t immediately clear if that contributed to him then handing the wrong envelope to Beatty. Cullinan deleted the Stone photo tweet, but Times reporters have seen copies of the tweet accessible on Google’s servers.

PwC is one of the Big Four accounting firmsand a huge enterprise that provides accounting, tax and consultant services around the world, services that typically are far more complicated than tallying Oscar ballots. The London-based firm has $36 billion in annual revenue and 223,000 employees.

PwC also has been tabulating the Oscar winners for 83 years, nearly as long as the awards show itself, and PwC makes a big splash of how its two Oscar representatives, Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, oversee the voting and keep the awards secret until the show’s telecast.

Cullinan, often teased as a Matt Damon lookalike, is the lead partner for the academy and the managing partner for PwC’s Southern California practice. Ruiz, who’s been with PwC for 19 years, also is a tax-compliance specialist for entertainment clients in Southern California.

After overseeing the vote tabulation, they each bring a set of the winners’ envelopes to the awards, taking separate routes with police escorts, then join up at the theater to walk along the red carpet — briefcases in hand — as they enter the show.

Barry Jenkins holds up a best picture Oscar for "Moonlight." (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Cullinan and Ruiz then take up positions on each side of the stage — again, with each holding the envelopes of all the winners to hand to the presenters — depending on which side of the stage the presenters emerge to face the audience.

In a promotional video on the PwC’s website ahead of Sunday's show, Cullinan said he and Ruiz are the only two who know the winners before the envelopes are opened live on stage.

He also said PwC's relationship with the Academy Awards was a testament to the firm's reputation in the market for being “a firm of integrity, of accuracy and confidentiality.”

This wasn’t the first time there had been a mistake in announcing an Oscar winner. In 1964, Sammy Davis Jr. was given the wrong envelope for a music-score award, to which Davis quipped: “Wait until the NAACP hears about this.”

And The Times had a hand in the envelopes even becoming part of Oscars tradition.

There were no sealed envelopes during the Oscars’ first decade, and then local newspapers were given the names of winners the day of the ceremony with the caveat that they didn’t print them until the awards were over.

But The Times jumped the gun by prematurely publishing the 1939 winners, led by “Gone with the Wind” as best picture, after which the academy began the sealed-envelope tradition.

 

[playahaitian]

PwC's hard-won reputation under threat after Oscars mistake
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty wrongly announced La La Land, instead of Moonlight, as best picture because they were given the wrong envelope

By AdAge.com, Adrianne Pasquarelli
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It was the blunder heard 'round the world.

At Sunday's Academy Awards, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly read the wrong Best Picture winner as La La Land, not Moonlight, after receiving the incorrect card on stage. The flub was quickly, if awkwardly, corrected, but it didn't take long for PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that has handled the award process for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for eight decades, to emerge as a culprit.

Experts say the lasting brand damage for the New York-based firm, the world's second largest by revenue, could be severe for a company that has built its reputation on accuracy.

"It is potentially a significant dent to their brand," said Katie Sprehe, director of reputation research at Washington D.C.-based APCO Worldwide. "PwC has had this Oscars gig for 83 years and it's a very public opportunity for them to show off the attributes of the PwC brand—their accuracy, their integrity and their ability to keep things confidential." She noted that the gaffe occurred in front of a much broader audience than just the clients who use the brand's services. Though initial reports estimate the Oscars attracted fewer viewers than last year's 34.4 million, many who didn't tune in likely watched clips of the Best Picture mix-up in news reports Monday morning.

Indeed, PwC drew early criticism from the likes of Les Moonves, chief executive of CBS Corp. Others took to Twitter under the hashtag #envelopegate to compare the error to their preferred presidential election results and Steve Harvey's 2015 Miss Universe mistake.

For its part, PwC immediately issued an apology, in which it specified Moonlight, La La Land, Beatty, Dunaway and Oscar viewers. In the statement, the firm noted that the presenters were given the wrong category envelope.

"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," read the apology.

Moving so quickly was a smart move, but PwC will need to do more in order to repair its reputation, according to Thomas Fladung, VP of Hennes Communications, which specializes in crisis management. "There's the old [saying], when you mess up, you fess up, and you fix up," he said, noting that PwC will need to be transparent with the public about what went wrong and how they are ensuring it will not happen again. "They have to be sincere—it's the action behind the words that is how you come out with your reputation intact," he explained.

It helps that PwC has 83 solid years of helming the 89-year-old Academy Awards tally process under its belt. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences did not return a request for comment about the accounting firm's relationship handling future award ceremonies. ABC, which broadcast the Oscars, did not return a call for comment.

The setback for PwC could open the door for accounting competitors like Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG, who may take advantage of the situation to build up their own brands.

Sprehe said such a public mistake positions PwC in the unenviable position of being the butt of jokes.

"Smart competitors would take advantage of this and rub a little bit of salt into the wound," she said, noting that social media lends itself to a more humorous approach.


http://www.crainsnewyork.com/articl...-reputation-under-threat-after-oscars-mistake

 

[playahaitian]

Oscars Mistake Casts Unwanted Spotlight on PwC


By DAVID GELLES and SAPNA MAHESHWARIFEB. 27, 2017



Mr. Ryan watched in horror as the bizarre scene played out before Hollywood’s biggest stars and tens of millions of people watching around the globe. In a dizzying turn of events, his firm, which normally occupies a back seat at the glamorous event, was suddenly at the center of one of the most sensational stories in Oscars history.

“I knew something was up,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday, zeroing in on the discordant moment when he noticed two of his employees interrupting the best picture acceptance speeches. “It’s not their job to come out on stage.”

As the magnitude of the gaffe set in, Mr. Ryan went into crisis-management mode.

“What was going though my head at the time was, ‘We have to get to the bottom of this, and if we made a mistake, we’ll own up to it,’” Mr. Ryan said. “My philosophy in life is, bad news doesn’t age well.”

Reaction to the mistake has been swift and harsh.

“The accountants have one job to do — that’s to give Warren Beatty the right envelope,” Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, said in a videotaped interview after the show, which was broadcast on ABC. “That’s what these people are paid a lot of money to do. If they were my accountant, I would fire them.”

On Monday, the hashtags #envelopegate and #Oscarfail were trending on Twitter, and PwC, a business that markets its services to other businesses, was newly on the tip of many consumers’ tongues in an unforgiving fashion.

“You had one job!” several people remarked, tagging the company’s username and the two partners who oversaw the ballots, who were the public faces of PwC’s efforts before and during the show. Some criticized PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, on an unofficial Facebook page for the business, with one person remarking its acronym could stand for “probably wrong card.”

Just as quickly as the fortunes of “La La Land” and “Moonlight” changed, PwC, one of the so-called Big Four accounting firms, had a major brand crisis on its hands.

“Not since Janet Jackson and her wardrobe malfunction on the Super Bowl have we seen something quite as glaring as this snafu,” said Andrew D. Gilman, the chief executive of the crisis communications firm CommCore Consulting Group, referring to the 2004 episode. Although most of PwC’s clients are aware that mistakes can happen, “the name of the firm has unfortunately been a little sullied,” he added.


PwC was quick to accept responsibility for the mistake.

According to Mr. Ryan and others briefed on the process, a PwC partner, Brian Cullinan, handed Mr. Beatty the wrong envelope.

Instead of the envelope containing the winner for best picture, Mr. Cullinan accidentally handed Mr. Beatty a duplicate of the envelope for best actress — an award Emma Stone had accepted for her role in “La La Land” just moments before.


For the Oscars, PwC uses two complete sets of the envelopes, with one placed on each side of the stage. Mr. Cullinan was handling one side, and the other partner overseeing the voting process, Martha L. Ruiz, was handling the other. It isn’t clear what led Mr. Cullinan to hand Mr. Beatty the wrong envelope.

Mr. Cullinan posted on Twitter a photograph of Ms. Stone backstage shortly after she won the award for best actress, and minutes before the mix-up, according to The Wall Street Journal. The post, which has been deleted, said “Best Actress Emma Stone backstage! #PWC.”

The design of the envelopes could have been a factor. The envelopes were redesigned this year to feature red paper with gold lettering that specified the award enclosed, rather than gold paper with dark lettering. That could have made the lettering harder to read. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not PwC, is responsible for the design and procurement of the envelopes.

Whatever the reason, PwC was left searching for answers. As celebrities and guests hit the town for celebrations, Mr. Ryan spent the hours after the awards show speaking with Mr. Cullinan, Ms. Ruiz, members of the Academy and the show’s producers.

“I spent the bulk of the night with Brian trying to understand what happened,” Mr. Ryan said. “There wasn’t much in terms of parties last night.”

Mr. Ryan and others at PwC were scrambling to contain the damage all night. The firm released a statement early Monday apologizing and taking responsibility for the mistake. Later in the day, Mr. Ryan wrote an email to PwC employees.

It is too early to tell how the error will affect the PwC brand.

A privately held partnership, PwC provides accounting, tax advisory and consulting services to most of the world’s largest corporations. It reported sales of $36 billion during its last fiscal year, up 7 percent from the previous year. The entertainment and media sector accounted for just 4.2 percent of sales.

PwC would not comment on its financial arrangement with the Academy, and Mr. Ryan said that there had not been any discussions about whether its longstanding contract was in jeopardy.

PwC, which said earlier this month that it planned to hire an advertising agency to help promote some of its services, recently selected R/GA for those efforts. That marketing work will be separate from any ad campaign the company may plan in the wake of the Oscars mix-up.

The company promotes the firm’s longstanding relationship with the Academy Awards on its website.

One video posted there, introducing Mr. Cullinan and Ms. Ruiz, began with the line, “The reason we were even first asked to take on this role was because of the reputation PwC has in the marketplace for being a firm of integrity, of accuracy and confidentiality.” It went on to note that the relationship was “symbolic of how we’re thought of beyond this role and how our clients think of us.”

Two PwC partners at the Oscars Sunday night Video by PwC US
But how clients think of PwC may change.

Mr. Gilman, the crisis communications specialist, said he was curious to see if PwC kept the Oscars contract. “They have branded themselves around this event saying, ‘We’re trusted’ — that’s the implication. Now I think that will take a hit.”

Correction: February 27, 2017
An earlier version of this article misidentified the location of the Dolby Theater. It is in Hollywood, not downtown Los Angeles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/business/media/pwc-oscars-best-picture.html?_r=0

 

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[playahaitian]

“I’m standing there like an idiot, feeling bad for these guys but also trying not to laugh, to be honest with you.” Just like you, Jimmy Kimmel will admit that he locked up during last night’s Best Picture Oscar snafu. America might still be frozen in that incredibly awkward moment in time, eyes like little dehydrated crab apples, joints aching, jaws agape, if it weren’t for the helpful screams of Denzel Washington, who directed Kimmel to grab Moonlight director Barry Jenkins and steer him toward the microphone for his acceptance speech. “Thank God Denzel was there to make sense!” Kimmel concludes. Sounds like Denzel deserves all the Bed Bath & Beyond coupons Kimmel should have stuffed in those envelopes.​

 

[playahaitian]

http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/faye-dunaway-feels-very-guilty-about-best-picture-mistake.html

Faye Dunaway Feels ‘Very Guilty’ About That Best Picture Mistake at the Oscars

In the long story of Faye Dunaway’s Hollywood career, her involvement in the Best Picture mix-up at this year’s Oscars will surely go down as one of her most memorable moments. In an interview with Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News, Dunaway spoke for the first time about how seeing the name “Emma Stone” printed on a card lead to La La Land initially receiving the night’s biggest award instead of the intended recipient, Moonlight. Apparently, she thought her co-presenter, Warren Beatty, was just putting her on when he opened the envelope but didn’t read out a winner.

“He took the card out, and he didn’t say anything. He paused. He looked over at me, [then] offstage,” Dunaway explained. “He looked around. And I finally said, ‘You’re impossible.’ I thought he was joking. I mean, I thought he was stalling. Warren’s like that. He kind of holds the power and makes people — a dramatic pause. But it’s part of his charm.” As we all learned soon after the ceremony, however, Beatty legitimately had no idea what to do after being handed a duplicate envelope for the Best Actress category, instead of the correct one for Best Picture. So Dunaway, doing what she thought was the right thing, named the movie that the Best Actress, Emma Stone, starred in — a move she says she feels “very guilty” about now. No matter how seasoned an industry veteran you are, it seems like the Academy Awards stage is a high pressure environment for everyone.