Was the Big Oscars Flub this Year Just Organized Chaos?

The Oscars, a celebration that venerates Hollywood’s elite in acting, screenwriting, illustration, and all things movies, has fallen into a dreadful pattern. In an attempt to always be classy and tasteful, the night that is reserved for the highest honor in movies has become terribly boring. The running joke of the monotonous energy of the Oscars is as old as Meryl Streep’s illustrious movie career, but with way less pizzazz and respectability. The planners of movie’s yawn-inducing “biggest night” needed something fresh. Something gasp-worthy (without people writing into the FCC about an exposed nipple). Something to grab the media’s attention on Monday, and last night it came. Now whether as a genuine mistake brought on by serendipity or a calculated publicity move, that’s for you to decide.

For a little over 2 years now, the Oscars, among other mainstream award shows, has been criticized for being too white washed in their selections as to who was the best in various categories for that year. Halle Berry being the only black woman to win Best Actress in the ceremony’s 89-year run, and with only a handful of people of color winning the little gold man in general, people wondered how this year’s movies featuring actors of color in lead roles would stack up to the rest of the year’s performances. Well this year, voters wanted to do things differently, awarding the Best Supporting Actor to Muslim African American, Mahershala Ali, and giving “Moonlight” Best Picture overall. But this honor for the majority black-casted movie didn’t come without a Steve Harvey inspired goof up.

If you haven’t heard yet, when announcing what movie would win best picture, someone slipped Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong card, leading the entire country to believe for about 3 minutes that the Oscars picked another movie with a majority white cast to win Best Picture in “La La Land.” Not until half of the acceptance speeches were over did guys wearing headset run out to notify everyone on stage that Moonlight was the real winner, making for a very awkward next few minutes. There’s all kinds of theories flying around, including an official investigation by the Oscars committee. Was it an intentional move by the award show to get more buzz around the Oscars? Or maybe they just wanted to grind President Trump’s gears last minute and give the honor to a movie with a largely non-white cast. Who really knows, the only thing that’s certain is this will definitely be going down in history as one of the more memorable Oscars ever. Because let’s face it, how else would they follow up Leonardo DiCaprio ending his 20-something year drought?