Imagine how a winner must feel when, halfway through their Academy Award speech, someone taps them on the shoulder and says, “Sorry, there’s been a mistake." That’s exactly what happened in 2017 when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were giving out the award for Best Picture. When Beatty opened the envelope, he didn’t see what he expected: Moonlight. He knew something was wrong and clearly hesitated. That’s when Dunaway grabbed the card and announced La La Land as the winner. The elated producers and cast made their way to the stage, but the stage manager knew they weren’t the winners. Two producers had already made their acceptance speeches and a third was in the midst of his. La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz took the correct card from a befuddled Beatty’s hand and announced Moonlight as the winner. The Moonlight team, showing a high amount of concern, took to the stage. It turns out that Price Waterhouse accountant Brian Cullinan was backstage handing out the envelopes, but was also clearly addicted to social media. Moments before he handed Beatty and Dunaway the wrong envelope, Cullinan had snapped a photo of Emma Stone and posted it on Twitter. In his confusion, the star-struck Cullinan made an error that would go down in Oscar controversy history. So, what happened to him? Surprisingly, he’s still an accountant at Price Waterhouse, though he did receive a stern warning: steer clear of the Oscars.
