It is a moment people in Hollywood still wince at. The wrong envelope was somehow given to Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty’s hands, and La La Land was declared the best picture of 2016. But then, seconds later, Moonlight was announced as the real winner. What followed was confusion, apologies, conspiracy theories, and a division in the 83-year partnership between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. This year, PwC is determined to regain trust and rebuilt its reputation with some new envelope-handing rules that will ensure the backstage of this year’s award show will be filled with tension. The two PwC partners responsible for both mishandling the envelope and failing to correct the error in time, Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, have not been invited back to the Oscars (they do still work at PwC). A 14-year Oscar-envelope-handing veteran, Rick Rosas, will return. Plus, PwC’s U.S. chairman and senior partner, Tim Ryan, will be overseeing the process himself. PwC has also banned the use of phones or social media backstage during the show. Last year, Cullinan posted a backstage photo he had take of Emma Stone to his personal Twitter account during the ceremony, just seconds before giving away the wrong envelope. He deleted his tweets, but not fast enough. Now there will be no tweeting or texting backstage. There will also be an extra PwC partner backstage, and all three of them will have a complete set of envelopes and will have memorized the full list of winners. There will also be rehearsals beforehand. Plus, as each envelope is handed off this year, both the presenters and a stage manager will confirm that it is actually the one that corresponds to the category they are about to present.
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