That said, I'm kind of amused by the kerfuffle over best picture. Maybe I shouldn't be. But I am. I'd say it's schadenfreude, except that I'm not really happy about it. It's more a matter of amusement at something ridiculous happening.
When I first heard about it, my reaction was that Marisa Tomei really did win her award back in the '90s. I remember people expressing shock that she had won, since My Cousin Vinny was a lightweight movie. There was speculation that she wasn't supposed to win, but the presenter somehow read the incorrect name and no one wanted to mess up the show by going out and correcting the record. Now we know that the show's producers will correct the record if necessary. Of course, one can play devil's advocate and point out that they might have had different priorities a quarter century ago. Hmmm...
When I heard more about what happened -- that one of PWC's accountans screwed up because he was tweeting when he should have been paying attention to the show -- I remembered a FaceBook post that someone made a month or two ago. He was complaining that people are glued to social media. That he can't go to a restaurant with people without the phones coming out. That eveyone is always Tweeting Twoting or Posting or Selfie-ing, and it interferes with conversations. Frankly, it's rude. And I'm not saying that as a person who's above such behavior -- I've tried to cut it out, but I still fall back on bad habits at times. But some situations are worse than others.
My understanding, based on what a colleague who knows some PWC accountants told me (and it jibes with media reports) is that the presenters alternate sides of the stage. One pair enters from stage right. The next from stage left. The next from stage right. Etc. On each side, standing at the wings, is a PWC accountant (or two?) with a set of envelopes naming the winners. They each have a complete set. So, when the accountant on one side hands the presenters the "Best Actress" envelope, the accountant on the other side is supposed to discard his. Then, when the accountant on that side hands a presenter the "Best Picture" envelope, the accountant on the first side discards his. That way, everything stays in sync. So, one of those accountants, Brian Cullinan (who is the episode's official villain), was busy on social media and forgot to discard his "Best Actress" envelope.
Now, while Cullinan is the biggest shlemiel in the episode, he's not the only one. Here are the others:
- Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway: The card specifies the category. And, in fact, the card that Dunaway read specified that Emma Stone was the winner for her role in La La Land. So, if they had had their wits about them, they would have realized something was amiss and called over someone to clarify. Beatty did explain that it didn't seem right, but instead of getting a clarification he just handed the card to Dunaway for her to make the mistake. I don't buy the idea that they were nervous, since they are show business professionals. More likely, they don't think as fast as they used to.
- Whoever designed the cards: This article explains it better than I can. The fact is that the cards could be designed in a way that would make this kind of mistake less likely. In short, the winner should be the boldest, biggest thing on the card, the category should be more prominent, and the "Oscars" logo should be tiny and unobtrusive.
This is obviously not going to help Cullinan's career, and I feel bad for that. You hate to see one mistake screw up a guy's professional life. Or I do, anyway. It's not like I've had a career without mistakes. Of course, none of mine were quite so public...
It's been made clear that Cullinan won't be back at the Oscars. But that doesn't mean that the next guy in line at PWC should be getting excited. I'd be surprised if the Academy doesn't switch accounting firms.
But that, of course, brings up my final question: Why does the Academy need one of the big four accounting firms to oversee the balloting and awards process?
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