Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty are announcing Best Picture at the Oscars again, because second time’s the charm
Hollywood loves a comeback. What they don’t love quite as much is when the industry’s most prestigious honor — the Academy Award for Best Picture — gets flubbed and handed off to the wrong movie on live TV, like what happened at the 2017 Oscars. (Although, speaking on behalf of those of us who watched from home, it was pretty entertaining, albeit cringeworthy.) But a comeback we’ll get during the 2018 Oscars: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will reportedly return to the ceremony stage to announce the Best Picture winner again — this time, we’re guessing, very carefully.
TMZ is reporting the pair, who told us La La Land was last year’s winner when it was actually Moonlight (although, in reality, it was an envelope hand-off mishap),is coming back for take two, and they’ve already been to the Dolby Theatre to rehearse their lines. Warren Beatty’s shown up in some Oscar promo spots poking fun at “the incident,” so chances are their segment will involve some degree of self-deprecation (probably a lot of it, really). And we’d be shocked if host Jimmy Kimmel didn’t work the whole thing into his opening monologue somehow.
And don’t worry, there will be structures in place to prevent another fiasco.
Back in January, several outlets reported that in addition to the two PricewaterhouseCoopers partners behind the mistake being banned by the Academy, there will be no social media or cellphones allowed backstage (one of the PWC dudes got caught tweeting right around the time he should have been monitoring the Best Picture envelope), and both presenters and a stage manager will be required to sign off on each envelope before the award is given. Better safe than sorry, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCQn_FkFElI?feature=oembed
As for Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, the two faced a lot of unfounded criticism after what happened, considering it wasn’t actually their fault, so the Academy giving them a second chance to get it right is a nice gesture. But we’d still advise the Three Billboards and Shape of Water cast and crew members to be ready for anything. You know, just in case.