AP Exclusive: Accountants in Oscar mistake are off the show
LOS ANGELES — The president of the film academy says the two accountants responsible for the best-picture flub at Sunday’s Academy Awards will never work the Oscars again. She also laments that the error overshadowed a show that celebrated a rich diversity of talent and storytelling.
Breaking her silence four days after the biggest blunder in the 89-year history of the Academy Awards, Cheryl Boone Isaacs praised the show’s producers and host Wednesday for “a most beautiful, beautiful, wonderful evening.”
“Then, of course, there was the last 90 seconds,” Boone Isaacs said. “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.”
The academy president told The Associated Press that Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, the PwC accountants who handled the winners’ envelopes at Sunday’s show, have been permanently removed from all film academy dealings.