In the middle of the selfies and the on-screen tweets to President Trump and a thousand and one other whiz-bang technological tools to make the Oscars seem relevant to an audience with an ever-shortening attention span, the Academy Awards were betrayed this year by the simplest item you can imagine.
Yes, a piece of paper crashed the Oscars.
Not just any piece of paper, mind you. An envelope. Or to put it more precisely: The Envelope, that most ancient of Oscar rituals, a piece of physical media, printed, lacquered, matted, die-cut, hand-folded and, in the immortal words of Stevie Wonder, signed, sealed and delivered by the trusted partners of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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Mahershala Ali comes backstage after winning the Oscar for supporting actor at the 89th Academy Awards. He won for his performance as Juan, a drug dealer who cares for a bullied boy.
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Mahershala Ali accepts his supporting actor Oscar for his performance in “Moonlight.”
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Alicia Vikander backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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A PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant stands backstage with red award envelopes to hand out at the Academy Awards.
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Mahershala Ali is congratulated by Alicia Vikander backstage after winning the Oscar for supporting actor.
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Emma Stone is seen from backstage as she accepts the lead actress Oscar for her work as aspiring actress Mia in “La La Land.”
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Emma Stone rises to accept the Oscar for lead actress.
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Oscar lead actress winner Emma Stone embraces Brie Larson, the previous year’s winner in the same category, backstage.
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Lead acting winners Emma Stone (“La La Land”) and Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”) hug backstage.
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Leonardo DiCaprio, the previous year’s winner for lead actor, walks newly minted Oscar winner Emma Stone backstage.
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“Moonlight” writer-director Barry Jenkins takes the stage with Tarell Alvin McCraney (white tuxedo) just behind him to accept the adapted screenplay Oscar.
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Barry Jenkins, seen from backstage, accepts the adapted screenplay Oscar.
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“Moonlight” actors Ashton Sanders, left, and Jharrel Jerome embrace backstage after the dramatic final moments of the 89th Academy Awards ceremony, in which “La La Land” was incorrectly announced as the best picture winner before the award went to “Moonlight.”
For the Record, Feb. 28, 2:52 p.m.: An earlier version of this caption misidentified Sanders as Andre Holland and Jharrel Jerome as Sanders.
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“Moonlight” actors Andre Holland, left, and Ashton Sanders react backstage to their film’s best picture win.
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“Moonlight” actors Trevante Rhodes, center, and Jharrel Jerome, right, react backstage after their film’s best picture win.
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“Moonlight” actor Mahershala Ali and “La La Land” actor Ryan Gosling interact backstage after the former’s film won best picture despite the initial announcement that the latter’s had.
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Writer Tarell Alvin McCraney and writer-director Barry Jenkins celebrate their adapted screeplay win for “Moonlight.”
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Supporting actor winner Mahershala Ali, who received the evening’s first award, is congratulated backstage by Justin Timberlake, who opened the show by singing the nominated original song “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” which he co-wrote for “Trolls.”
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Janelle Monáe, who acted in two of the year’s best picture nominees -- “Hidden Figures” and the winning “Moonlight” -- is seen backstage.
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Octavia Spencer, a supporting actress nominee for “Hidden Figures,” is seen backstage.
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“Hidden Figures” stars Janelle Monáe, standing from left, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer hang out backstage with trailblazing former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson. Henson played Johnson in the film.
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Viola Davis approaches the stage to accept the supporting actress Oscar for her performance in “Fences.”
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Viola Davis gives a memorable speech after winning the supporting actress Oscar for her performance in “Fences” as Rose, a wife whose husband betrays her trust.
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Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux are seen backstage.
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Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced the title heroine of “Moana” and performed the original song nominee “How Far I’ll Go” during the ceremony, is seen backstage.
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Shirley MacLaine backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Dakota Johnson backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Viola Davis backstage after winning the supporting actress Oscar.
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Charlize Theron backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend backstage at the 89th Academy Awards. Chart-topping musician Legend, who played a band’s frontman in “La La Land,” performed both of the film’s original song nominees, “City of Stars” and “Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” during the ceremony.
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Jennifer Aniston, left, Nicole Kidman, and Keith Urban backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Warren Beatty backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Presenter Faye Dunaway (in white) backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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“Manchester by the Sea” writer-director Kenneth Lonergan, center, accepts the Oscar for original screenplay from Matt Damon, left, and Ben Affleck, who were presenting the award 20 years after winning it for writing “Good Will Hunting.”
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“Manchester by the Sea” writer-director Kenneth Lonergan approaches the stage to accept his original screenplay Oscar.
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Ben Affleck, left, Kenneth Lonergan and Matt Damon head backstage after Lonergan’s win.
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Presenters Matt Damon, left, and Ben Affleck backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Presenter Scarlett Johansson backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Co-lyricist Justin Paul, left, and composer Justin Hurwitz head backstage after winning the original song Oscar for “City of Stars,” which they wrote with co-lyricist Benj Pasek for “La La Land.”
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“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” actors Felicity Jones, center, and Riz Ahmed backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Charlize Theron, left, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Felicity Jones and Riz Ahmed talk to Samuel L. Jackson backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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Amy Adams backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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The star-studded crowd at the Oscars reacts in shock when “Moonlight” is revealed as the best picture winner after “La La Land” was initially announced as the award’s recipient.
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The audience is stunned after it’s announced that “La La Land” was erroneously named the best picture winner instead of “Moonlight.”
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“Moonlight” writer-director Barry Jenkins reacts after being handed the best picture Oscar for his film following the initial, incorrect announcement that “La La Land” had won.
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“La La Land” producer Fred Berger congratulates “Moonlight” actor Mahershala Ali onstage. Representatives from both films crowded the stage after the erroneous announcement that “La La Land” had won was corrected.
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The star-studded crowd at the Oscars reacts in shock when “Moonlight” is revealed as the best picture winner.
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“Moonlight” actors Ashton Sanders, left, and Trevante Rhodes celebrate backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
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The star-studded crowd at the Oscars reacts in shock when “Moonlight” is revealed as the best picture winner.
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The star-studded crowd at the Oscars reacts in shock when “Moonlight” is revealed as the best picture winner.
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The star-studded audience in the Dolby Theatre reacts to the corrected announcement that “Moonlight” had won best picture, not the previously declared “La Land Land.” Producers from “La La Land” were making acceptance speeches when they received the news.
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“La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz is seen from backstage at the 89th Academy Awards. He delivered a best picture acceptance speech before being notified of the mix-up and relaying news to the audience that “Moonlight” had in fact won.
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Oscar statuettes backstage at the 89th Academy Awards.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Only this year, one of those partners handed the wrong envelope to presenter Warren Beatty. Baffled by its contents — the card contained the winner of the lead actress Oscar, not best picture — Beatty handed the envelope to co-presenter Faye Dunaway, who erroneously proclaimed “La La Land” the victor.
That envelope then ended up in the hands of “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz, who told me Monday that he didn’t bother looking at it or the card — because why would he? He simply held onto it because, in recent years, since the academy upgraded to fancy-schmancy stationery, that envelope has become as cherished a keepsake as the Oscar itself.
As well it should be. Last year’s Oscar envelopes, designed by Marc Friedland Couture Communications, required 110 man-hours (Person-hours? Can’t women construct these things too?) to create. That’s 110 hours … for one envelope, each costing about $200.
I’m not sure how that compares to this year’s set of stationery, which was made by a different company, perhaps the one George Costanza bought his wedding invitations from. There are reports that the 2017 Oscar envelope, sporting a lower contrast gold printing on a red background, making it harder to read, may have contributed to the biggest fiasco in the history of the Academy Awards.
When the correct envelope was finally produced, Horowitz held its contents up for all to see: “Moonlight.” Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, producers. Best Picture.” (The point size for “Best Picture,” by the way, was annoyingly small.)
The ritual of the Oscar envelope, paraded down the red carpet in locked briefcases like Moses returning from the mountain, stone tablets in hand, dates to 1940. The year before, back in the day when the motion picture academy gave the press a list of winners beforehand, the Los Angeles Times leaked the winners prior to the ceremony. (You can’t trust the media!)
The winners were never much of a secret anyway, but from that point forward, the names were sealed in stationery, giving birth to the phrase “The envelope, please” and, later, split-screen cams designed to show us the victors’ joy and, sometimes, a nominee’s (there are no losers here) grumpiness. (We’re looking at you, Bill Murray.)
Other awards shows encase their winners’ names in paper too, but those envelopes have never captured the public’s fancy in the same way as the Oscars. That might be because the Academy Awards have always put its envelope-keepers, those pesky PricewaterhouseCoopers partners, in the spotlight, marching them down the red carpet and giving them a shout-out during the show. (Interestingly enough, this was the rare year when we didn’t see them during the telecast.)
Two years ago, Cate Blanchett spied PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Brian Cullinan and his locked briefcase on the red carpet and engaged him in a spirited tug-of-war over its contents. (This from an actress who was the safest bet that year to win an Oscar.)
Cullinan, a solid professional and likable guy, is apparently the one who handed Beatty the wrong envelope this year — meaning he might not be back at the Oscars in 2018.
But you can bet the envelopes will.
glenn.whipp@latimes.com
Twitter: @glennwhipp
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