Professor Elam

Tuesday Feb 28 2017

Here is the NY Times story on the Oscar Best Picture mix up now known as envelopgate.

I was not able to link to the WSJ article which revealed that the PwC partner Brian Cullinan has asked for permission to use social media

backstage. The Academy denied this saying that was not his job. His job was simply to deliver the correct envelope to the correct person. But Brian ignored this ruling and was tweeting photos of Emma  Stone just moments before the wrong envelope was handed off. This is a violation of internal controls, and he certainly knew better. Take a look at his face below,  clearly he is a CPA in La La Land, thrilled to be among the movie stars. The briefcase contains of course the names of the winners. The time for joking around was AFTER the ceremony, not before.

Each of the Two PwC

partners, he and Ms. Ruiz, had identical envelopes. They were on opposite sides of the stage not know which side the parties would enter from. After Ms. Ruiz gave the Best Actress envelope to the previous presenter, Brian had an extra. That was the envelope he gave Warren Beatty.

Beatty and Dunaway meanwhile had apparently  been feuding over who would make the announcement. Beatty got the envelop, read the result and then handed it to Dunaway. She, assuming she had the right name, apparently missed the Best Actress part, and announced the movie instead.

Bottom Line

Brian Cullinan should have followed procedure. Had he been paying attention and not tweeting perhaps he would have performed as well on the last envelope as he did on the others.

Now, did Beatty intentionally try to disgrace Dunaway?  He hesitated long enough to raise suspicion he knew what had happened. Hmmm, and she of course assumed she had the right envelope, rather than questioning it at that moment.

So one big mistake makes for bad publicity for the thousands of PwC employees.

What say you, will the Academy retain PwC  in the future. It is a certainty PwC, if it manages to hold on, won't send Brian a second time.

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

Nothing on the PwC Site!  http://www.pwc.com/