Emma Stone calls B.S. on Warren Beatty: 'I was holding my Best Actress envelope'
Who you gonna believe -- Warren Beatty, Emma Stone, or some other, even weirder version of the truth?
Beatty told millions of people watching the Oscars' jaw-dropping, history-distorting mishap Sunday night that he mistakenly called out La La Land as the Best Picture winner -- before it went to Moonlight in a stunning turnaround -- because he had the wrong envelope in his hand. That envelope, he said, "said 'Emma Stone, La La Land.'"
His suggestion: Someone had mistakenly handed him the envelope for Stone's Best Actress win, which she'd accepted just moments before.
But minutes later, Stone had a very different version of events. Speaking with reporters backstage, she lavished Moonlight with praise, then said:
"I also was holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card that entire time. So whatever story ... I don't mean to start stuff, but whatever story that was, I had that card. So I'm not sure that happened. And I really wanted to talk to you guys first."
Though this seems to be setting up a he-said, she-said for the ages, there is evidence to suggest that Beatty was truly not to blame.
Moonlight writer/director Barry Jenkins, also speaking to reporters backstage, said the Academy had offered "no explanation" for the mishap.
"Things just happened," Jenkins said. "I saw two cards? Things just happen, you know. I wanted to see the card, to really see the card, and Warren refused to show the card to anyone before he showed it to me."
About that same time, Los Angeles Times reporter Amy Kaufman tweeted that a colleague, positioned just offstage, witnessed the moment when someone first realized there had been a mistake -- and yes, it involved Beatty holding the wrong envelope:
And a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, watching from home, captured this image:
Did a stagehand give Beatty a backup envelope? Did he try to cover up his own blunder? Did Stone's envelope grow legs and leap into Beatty's hands?
No one knows exactly yet -- and as reporters pressed Jenkins for details on the "two envelopes" theory, the Academy's media wrangler immediately shut those questions down.
And that's when Jenkins summed it all up pretty well: "The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane."
Until we find out how this happened, the next couple of days may not be any calmer -- or less insane.
Topics Oscars
Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
