It has now become clear that the chaotic conclusion to the 2017 Academy Awards, which infamously saw La La Land named as the Best Picture winner rather than Moonlight, was set into motion after the wrong card was handed to presenter Warren Beatty. But even though we've now got the full story of how the most hectic moment in Oscar history unfolded, it doesn't mean that we don't want to hear further tales from those who were right in the thick of the action. Jimmy Kimmel provided his version of events when he returned to hosting his titular chat show on Monday night, and he provided some fascinating and hilarious insights to the story.
While it clearly was an awful ordeal to go through at the time, at least after all this mess Jimmy Kimmel's name will forever be burned into Oscar folklore. Especially because of the way that he immediately laid the blame at Warren Beatty's feet, even though it has now transpired that PriceWaterhouseCoopers accountant Brian Cullinan, who handed the best picture envelope to Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the man responsible.
While recalling his version of events Jimmy Kimmel also pointed out that it really wasn't Warren Beatty's fault at all. In fact, the 14-time Oscar nominee was the first one to actually recognize that there was an issue, as he looked at the envelope a number of times before then showing Faye Dunaway the card. It was at this point that the Bonnie to his Clyde declared that La La Land was actually the winner, which then led to the most bizarre couple of minutes in entertainment history.
But while Jimmy Kimmel insisted that the mix-up wasn't Warren Beatty's fault, he did joke that "Clyde threw Bonnie under the bus," the very moment that he showed Faye Dunaway the card, and left her to read out the answer. Clearly, Warren Beatty's best option would have been to tell those in the crowd and the millions of people watching at home that the card was wrong, but he missed that chance and left Dunaway to inadvertently blurt out the wrong answer. I suppose you win some and you lose some.
There was one other intriguing revelation from Jimmy Kimmel regarding the end of the Oscars, as he teased that the planned ending to the show was supposed to involve him sat next to Matt Damon. Instead, the wrong declaration that La La Land and not Moonlight had won the Best Picture Oscar forced Jimmy Kimmel to immediately cancel the scheduled conclusion, and he went up on stage to try and iron out the problems.
It's going to be interesting to see how Jimmy Kimmel's stint as the host of the Oscars is remembered. Because not only did he oversee the biggest mess in the ceremony's 89 year history, but he also invited a man that had just got out of prison to waltz among the Hollywood glitterati, while his jokes about the names Mahershala Ali and Yulree have also been criticized, too. Other than that, though, it went very smoothly.
Photo Credit: ABC/Eddy Chen
