fell down. It sounded like some-
body set a bomb off. We had to
bring in 60 stagehands to repair
everything before the show.
We had to push the opening of
the theater — they usually
open the doors at 4 p.m., but we
didn’t open them until 4:45.
And we never got to rehearse
the back half of the show.
MELIDONIAN We were thinking,
“OK, this is the worst that it’s
going to be. We’re good.”
HUDSON “Blue skies from here.”The show starts with a perfor-
mance of “Can’t Stop the
Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake,
followed by Kimmel’s well-
received monologue.
HUDSON Everyone in that whole
theater was dancing. Things
couldn’t have gone better.
KIMMEL If you get through the
monologue successfully,
you’re like 75 percent of the way
there. It went very well.
NICOLETTE AIZENBERG, Head of publicity
at A24, which financed and distributed
Moonlight Mahershala [Ali] won
best supporting actor early on,
and I was so happy for him.A few weeks before the show,
Oscars producers Michael De Luca
and Jennifer Todd recruit Warren
Beatty and Faye Dunaway to
present the best picture Oscar.
JENNIFER TODD, Producer,
89th Oscars Being that it was the
50th anniversary of Bonnie
and Clyde, we thought, “These
two people would be so spec-
tacular to get!”
PEGGY SIEGAL, Publicist, hosted events
for La La Land and Moonlight Warren
and Faye have not had the great-
est relationship over the years.
This is common knowledge. It’s a
strained pairing because Faye is
impossible.
Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz
of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
the accounting firm that has
overseen the Oscars since 1934,
are brought back as “balloting
leaders,” a role that includes
tabulating ballots and handing
presenters envelopes. Concerns
are raised even before the show.
TENI MELIDONIAN, Managing director,
publicity and corporate communications,
the Academy I met Brian four
years ago when he first became
a balloting leader. Very dedi-
cated, loved the Oscars, enjoyed
being there. Sometime that week
[of the show], my department had
told PwC’s PR department that
Brian was not allowed to do any
social media backstage because
he was very engaged with social
media during the week lead-
ing up to the show.
DAWN HUDSON, CEO, the Academy
It was brought to my attention.
TODD I had several exchanges
with PwC about them wanting
to know how much we could
feature them during the broad-
cast. Brian did a bit at the end
in the Neil Patrick Harris year
[2015], so he was curious to see
if there was anything on the
show this year.
JIMMY KIMMEL, Host I think the
primary issue at rehearsal
— and this was something that
was in my head when that enve-
lope moment happened — was
how well [Beatty and Dunaway]
could see the teleprompter.
GLENN WEISS, Telecast director I’d just
call it “an interesting dynamic”
between the two of them.
LISA TABACK, Awards consultant,
worked on both La La Land and Moonlight
campaigns I saw Faye the day before
the Oscars at the Sally Hershberger
salon on La Cienega. She’d been
driving the staff crazy for the past
three days, trying to get her blond
hair just right. When I walked in,
the staff was ready to throw her
out the window.By the day of the ceremony,
almost all indicators pointed to
a big night for La La Land.
TODD On Sunday morning, our
three art deco tower set pieces1Then Barry [Jenkins, Moonlight’s
director and co-writer] and Tarell
[Alvin McCraney, who also wrote
the play upon which Moonlight
is based] won best adapted screen-
play. Those were the two awards
we were expected to win.
TA BAC K I was sitting next to [La La
Land director] Damien [Chazelle]’s
parents, so I had to play it cool
when La La Land lost a number of
categories it was expected
to win. They kept saying, “Is this
a bad thing?” [But] after Damien’s
win [for director], I was able to
relax. I was sure that La La Land
was going home with best picture.
CHERYL BOONE ISAACS, Then-president,
the Academy Mike and Jen did what
they said they’d wanted to do — an
incredibly entertaining show that
moved along.
TODD [ABC] likes you to hit the
last commercial before mid-
night [ET]. When Emma Stone
walked offstage [with the best
actress Oscar] and it went to
black and we cut to commercial,
it was 11:59:59, so we were like,
“We made it!” Somebody put a
glass of champagne down in
front of me.The Big Day
- 2 –
The Countdown
- 1 –
JENNIFER TODD, Oscars producer
“I said, ‘Oh my God, we’re having
the Steve Harvey Oscars!’ ”