Two accountants blamed for Oscar blunder banned from future events

The two accountants involved in the embarrassing mix-up at Sunday's Oscars will not be invited back to the future show.

Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz are blamed for the envelope mix-up that led to ‘La La Land’ being mistaking announced as the winner of the Best Picture while ‘Moonlight’ was later declared the actual winner.

Cullinan and Ruiz with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which has been responsible for tallying and safeguarding Oscar votes and results for the past 83 years, handed out the wrong envelope to the presenters of the Best Picture winner, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The envelope that was given to the presenters contained the duplicate card for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Emma Stone for La La Land, which resulted in the wrong announcement by Dunaway.

In a statement, PwC took “full responsibility for the series of mistakes and breaches of established protocols” and also said Cullinan was mortified by his mistake.

“He is very upset about this mistake. And it is also my mistake, our mistake and we all feel very bad,” Tim Ryan, PwC's US chairman, told Variety.

The company had no immediate comment on the Academy's decision to drop Cullinan and Ruiz from future shows.

The 89th Academy Awards was held at Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center on Sunday, February 26, 2017. The event was hosted by Late-night talk show host, producer and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

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