【1989 Archives】

Some disaster films can't989 Archivessaved with edits or rewrites, especially when they're real.

It was past midnight and as excited as everyone was to learn which film took top prize at the 89th Academy Awards Ceremony, plenty of people were also tired, and ready for the three-and-a-half self-congratulatory marathon to end.

After a bit of fumbling and a series of confused looks off-stage, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway finally announced La La Landas the Best Picture winner. Commence cheering, the marking off of Oscar ballots. Then, noticing that something was amiss on the Oscars stage.

SEE ALSO: Oscars 2017: Full winners list

It was like watching two televisions shows simultaneously competing for your attention. In the foreground was La La Landproducer Fred Berger clutching his gold statuette and accepting the award. Behind him was chaos. Beatty looked flustered and soon a small cadre of people, the La La Landteam and Oscar telecast producers were clustered behind him, frantically doing something.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Nearby Emma Stone who, only minutes earlier, had won Best Actress for the same film, opened her already over-sized eyes even wider, appearing to hear something impossible.

Then the impossible happened. The Best Picture Mistake.

La La Landproducer Jordan Hororwitz, the only person on stage who appeared to know what to do, broke the news on stage. “I’m sorry, no, there’s a mistake.” Then he paused for just a second and pointed out into the stunned audience, “Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.” Then he had to add, since Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel is well known for pranks, “This is not a joke, come up here.”

“I’m sorry, no, there’s a mistake.”

By now we know that the 79-year-old legendary actor and director Warren Beatty, who struggled to understand why his envelope for Best Picture named Emma Stone, was not at fault. The accounting firm Price Waterhouse handed him the wrong envelope (every category has two copies, one for each side of the stage).

Well, glad we cleared thatup.

Don't get me wrong. Moonlightdeserved to win (it's a transcendent piece of film-making) and it would have been a travesty if the mistake wasn't cleared up during the telecast. It's just hard to deal with the fact that the disaster unfolded, in real-time, right before our eyes. If the Academy had a Horror Short Subject category, this 10 minute clip would've won.

Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

It was such a stunning turn of events that it shook to the core this lifelong Oscars fan’s belief and trust in the yearly spectacle.

It’s just a show; really a show about shows. Actors dress up and get to gush about how much they love their work, their co-stars, their directors, their process, their agents, their plastic surgeons (okay, none do that). It’s empty, predictable, occasionally cheesy (looking at you and Minnie Mouse, Rob Lowe).

There are, obviously, moments of emotional, social and political impact (President Donald Trump was, this year, a running joke), but in the scheme of things, the Oscars are just not that important.

It was something Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel took pains to reminds us of moments after the debacle. “Hey’ it’s just an awards, show, right?” he said to the viewing audience and maybe a little to himself since he jokingly (maybe) blamed himself for the historic snafu.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

For movie buffs, or anyone well-aware of all these things (and maybe because of them), it is our Super Bowl. And in its scripted, over-produced and, occasionally, corny way, it’s as dependable as the sunrise.

The Oscars is also a live show. Within that structure, there can be the unexpected: Marlon Brando sending a Native American to accept his award for The Godfatheror a streaker dashing behind an un-phased David Niven.

These and many other moments are like additional rhinestones on an Oscars gown. They add sparkle and interest, but do not change the form or intention.

This mistake, which happened at the moment of Best Picture coronation—strike that—after the coronation, is a foundation disruption; like a tension-filled fault that, after almost a century, suddenly shifts, opening a chasm that swallowed the last 10 minutes of the telecast.

Virtually everything that happened over the previous 180 minutes evaporated, replaced with a blimp-sized mistake that we are still trying to see past.

I will never watch the Oscars again without thinking of that terrible moment

My trust in the show and, of course, Price Waterhouse, is broken. The last one-true thing in my life, something so inconsequential and yet beautiful for its utter simplicity and dependability is in shambles.

It's going to be hard for plenty of people to watch the Oscars again without thinking of that terrible moment, where uncertainty ruled an otherwise organized stage and well-oiled machine.

A year from now, when we’re watching the next Oscars telecast, it'll be the elephant on the stage that Kimmel (who should be invited back) must address immediately. Even after he does, every envelope opening will be scrutinized again and again. I suspect we’ll see a new digital component that will have the presenters scan in the winner cards for verification before they utter those words, “And the winner is...”

I don’t know who the winners will be next year. But I do know that, right now, we Oscars fans all feel like we’ve lost something.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Despite the most awkward moment in Oscars history, ‘Moonlight’s’ Best Picture award is what matters most.

---

Topics Oscars