The Oscars are getting set for a do-over.
After an epic best picture mix-up last year, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were rehearsing at the Dolby Theatre last night and are expected to present the top honor again at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The duo had been tapped in 2017, timed to the 50th anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde, but after an envelope mix-up by on-site accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the award was mistakenly given to La La Land over Moonlight.
That mistake was left standing for an excruciating few minutes, as producers and organizers scrambled to figure out what happened. “Warren, what did you do?” exclaimed emcee Jimmy Kimmel (also returning as host this year) as they sorted out the mess.
The Oscar envelope that Dunaway read from was the best actress category. “I opened the envelope and it said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I looked at Faye, and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Beatty clarified on stage at the time.
“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected,” a PricewaterhouseCoopers statement read hours after the event ended.
After the ceremony, PwC accountants Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz were removed from working on film Academy events. PricewaterhouseCoopers is still on board for this year’s Academy Awards, however, which will mark the 84th Oscar ceremony the firm has worked on.
In January, the Academy unveiled a new set of guidelines to better prevent against a mix-up happening again. And new Academy president John Bailey hinted that the ceremony would be addressing what became the most talked-about moment of last year’s show.
“I don’t want to reveal anything about the show, but how could [Kimmel] not? That’s become a defining moment,” Bailey told THR in an interview. “Nobody’s hiding the fact that it happened, though we are taking measures so that it doesn’t happen again.”
Last year’s show was watched live by 32.9 million viewers and had a run-time of three hours and 49 minutes.
(Excerpt) Read More in: The Hollywood Reporter