One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Oscars Fiasco Won't Cost PwC Their Job At Next Year's Ceremony
Photo via Getty Images
Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will be maintaining its 83-year relationship with the Academy Awards, despite last month's very public on-stage mix-up over the winner for the Best Picture category.
There will be new series of measures taken, however, to ensure that the process runs smoothly in the future, the Academy's Board of Directors announced. New protocols will include banning cellphones backstage for PwC accountants, adding a third balloting partner who will sit with the telecast's director, and having PwC's chairman present for oversight. Furthermore, KNBC notes that PwC balloting partners will be required to participate in ceremony rehearsals.
“PwC takes full responsibility for the series of mistakes and breaches of established protocols during last night’s Oscars,” PwC said in a statement released the morning after February's Oscars ceremony, according to Deadline. “PwC partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed the backup envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs sent an email to academy members on Wednesday detailing the new protocols.
"Heading into our 84th year working with PwC, a partnership that is important to the Academy, we've been unsparing in our assessment that the mistake made by representatives of the firm was unacceptable," Boone Isaacs wrote in the email. She continued that in lieu of the new controls presented by PwC "the board has decided to continue working with PwC."
According to KPCC, Boone Isaacs also called last month's Oscars ceremony "the most extraordinary and memorable Oscars ceremony in decades."
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
