PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants, Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, have been removed permanently from all film academy dealings for being distracted during this year's Oscars.
- March 2, 2017
AceShowbiz -
Two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants who were involved in Oscars' Best Picture flub will never return to the show. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the President of the Film Academy, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, February 1, that Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz from PwC "have been removed permanently from all film academy dealings."
Cullinan and Ruiz are banned from next year's ceremony for being distracted during the show and causing the ruckus. "Cullinan was distracted backstage," Boone Isaacs said. "He tweeted (and later deleted) a photo of Emma Stone in the wings with her new Oscar minutes before giving presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for best picture."
Boone Isaacs was angered by the gaffe since it overshadowed the diversity of talent and storytelling after two years of the #OscarsSoWhite crisis. "And what angered me, I would say, in these last couple days is (the focus on) this 90 seconds and moving to the side the brilliance of the day." She later added, "They have one job to do. One job to do! Obviously there was a distraction."
Although Cullinan was the one who handed the wrong envelope, Ruiz also received the ban since she didn't act quickly enough to catch the error. "Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner," said PwC in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, The Academy issued an apology for another Oscars blunder that happened during the Sunday night ceremony. The Academy mistakenly put the picture of living director Jan Chapman during the ceremony's In Memoriam segment. The Academy addressed the incident on Instagram by posting the picture of costume designer Janet Patterson, whose name appeared next to Chapman's picture during the show.
Along with the picture, The Academy wrote, "We sincerely apologize to producer Jan Chapman, whose photo was mistakenly used in the Oscars 'In Memoriam' tribute for her colleague and dear friend, the late Janet Patterson. Janet, an Academy member and four-time Oscar-nominated costume designer, was beloved in our community. We extend our deepest apologies and condolences to the Patterson family. Please see our updated 'In Memoriam' video tribute (https://osca.rs/TributeVideo17) and online gallery (https://osca.rs/InMemoriam2017) on Oscar.com."
