48 EW.COM MARCH 10, 2017OSCARS★ 2017
(Clockwise from left)
Viola Davis; Ali with a stunned
tourist; Jimmy Kimmel
serves his guests some
special deliveriesMAHERSHALA ALIwill be in Robert Rodriguez’sAlita: Battle Angel. DAMIEN CHAZELLEis directing a Neil Armstrongbiopic.
How did the whole
candy-parachute thing
happen?
Grips at the Dolby Theatre
stood on the catwalk high
in the rafters and lobbed
bags of Junior Mints, Red
Vines, doughnuts, and
cookies (from L.A.-based
bakery DeLuscious), four
to six at a time, down to
the crowd below. When the
second course dropped
later in the evening, a
literalHunger Games broke
out below. Spoiler: Not
everyone shared.
After Emma Stone landed the Best
Actress prize, the audience settled in for the
climactic award. Beatty wrestled with the
Best Picture envelope and paused awk-
wardly after opening it, causing co-presenter
Dunaway to accuse him of teasing out the
suspense. Ever the gentleman, he handed
the envelope to her, and she announced the
“winner”:La La Land.
We know now that Beatty’s hesitation had
not been for dramatic effect but because he
had been handed the wrong envelope (see
sidebar, page 46). The Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers accountants realized the mistake,but only after twoLa La Landproducers had
given their speeches. As theMoonlight cast
and filmmakers took the stage, director
Jenkins was pushed to the microphone. In a
blur, he talked about dreams being fulfilled
and thankedLa La Land, but he was too
stunned to deliver the kind of speech he had
hoped he would. “It was an imperfect situa-
tion, and it was an imperfect statement that
didn’t come out the right way,” he said the
next day. “But it is what it is.”
The 89th Academy Awards will now live
in infamy for Envelopegate, but it should be
remembered for a far more importantreason. The same organization that had suf-
fered through two years of #OscarsSoWhite
protests, that had overlookedBrokeback
Mountain 11 years ago, had just rewarded a
film that shattered every stereotype about
what an Oscar movie looks like. “I just
hope the weird pandemonium doesn’t
overshadow the fact that a $1.5 million inde-
pendent film by a black director about black,
gay, poor people was named Best Picture,”
saysSelmadirector Ava DuVernay. “The pro-
cess to get there was very weird, but it’s an
amazing thing.”ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DEVAN
COGGAN, LYNETTE RICE, AND MARC SNETIKERDid that tour-bus
group really not
know they were
going to the
Oscars?
Host Jimmy Kimmel
has yanked Holly-
wood Boulevard
tourists onto his
ABC late-night
show before, but
the unwitting bus of
stargazers–turned–
Oscar attendees
was the real deal.
“They told them it
was a special tour...
to see some Oscar
memorabilia,” says
security guard
Neal Wilson, who
escorted the dozen
through the theater.
“They had no clue.
They were com-
pletely surprised.”BURNING QUESTIONBURNING QUESTIONDAVIS: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS; CANDY DROP: EDDY CHEN/ABC VIA GETTY IMAGES; RODRIGUEZ AND ALI: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES