The Academy Awards isn't looking to repeat its mistakes.
The Academy Awards isn't looking to repeat its mistakes.
The 2017 Oscars made history and headlines when presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced that La La Land had won Best Picture, with the film's entire team making their way to the stage and even giving acceptance speeches before it was discovered that Moonlight was the real winner.
Much was made of the unprecedented mix-up, which was revealed to have been caused by auditors at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
They handed Beatty and Dunaway, who are set to take the stage for a second year in a row to present the award for Best Picture, the Best Actress winner's card instead of Best Picture -- but it won't happen again.
"The biggest safeguard there is that this company PricewaterhouseCoopers will literally have to go out of business if they do it a second time," Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel cracked on a recent appearance on Good Morning America. "So I think they'll have to be very, very careful."
Yes, the accounting firm is back on the job for the 2018 Oscars, but they really do have a plan to avoid any snafus. After a long meeting with the Academy, the Associated Press reports that PwC has made five big changes to the protocol on Oscar Sunday. Here's what's happening:
1. Immediately instituted after last year's flub, PwC partners are prohibited from using cell phones or social media during the show. The change was implemented after fans noticed that just before the mix-up, auditor Brian Cullinan had tweeted a photo of Best Actress winner Emma Stone.
2. Neither of the PwC auditors, Cullinan or Martha Ruiz, will be returning for the awards show. Though Cullinan and Ruiz still work for PwC, they will be replaced at the 90th Academy Awards by Rick Rosas and Kimberly Bourdon.
3. A third balloting partner will sit with Oscar producers in the show's control room, and will have a complete set of winners' envelopes and commit the winners to memory.
4. When envelopes are handed over, both the presenter and stage manager will confirm that they've been given the right envelope for the category they're about to announce.
5. All three balloting partners will be present at rehearsals for the awards show, and practice what to do if something goes wrong.
While the Academy is taking this year's Oscars seriously, one year later, they've got a sense of humor about the flub -- or at least Kimmel does. The 50-year-old comedian joked about the blunder in a hilarious promo for the show, which even featured a cameo appearance by Beatty. See more on the Oscars in the video below.
The 90th Academy Awards airs on Sunday, March 4, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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