Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali should’ve known the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wouldn’t let them dominate the headlines this morning.
Davis won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Fences and Ali won Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight. But they are not the big story this morning.
The story dominating the headlines this morning is the unforgivable way veteran actor Warren Beatty flubbed the Best Picture announcement.
It is being called the “biggest mistake in Oscars history” — but don’t think it wasn’t planned that way.
That look on Beatty’s face when he uttered the name “Emma Stone” wasn’t rehearsed. He was embarrassed, humiliated and stunned when he handed the envelope to veteran actress Faye Dunaway, who announced the wrong picture — “La La Land”, The odds on favorite to win it all.
The powers that be knew Beatty got it wrong. Yet they waited. They knew Dunaway got it wrong. But still, they waited.
They waited while the La La Land producers poured their hearts into their acceptance speeches.
Finally, producer Jordan Horowitz spoke up: “I’m sorry, there’s been a mistake,” he said, before announcing Moonlight won the Best Picture honor.
“This is not a joke,” he told the stunned audience, who must’ve wondered where they’d seen this joke before.
Steve Harvey tried to ease Beatty’s pain. Harvey has been there. He, too, was handed the wrong card during the 2015 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas.
He, too, was forced to defend someone else’s blunder at his expense.
“Warren, I know your pain,” he tweeted on Monday morning.
We all know Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali’s pain. They deserved better.
