PwC Accountants Involved in Oscar Fiasco Will Not Work on Show Again, Remain Partners at Firm
The two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants involved with the Best Picture mix-up at the Oscars will not work the awards show again.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced on Wednesday the decision not to have the accountants — Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan — return to the ceremony, PEOPLE confirmed. The Associated Press was first to report the news.
“I can confirm they have been taken off the Academy Awards but they will still remain partners at the firm,” a spokesperson for PwC told PEOPLE.
Additionally, U.S. chairman and senior partner at PwC Tim Ryan has made himself available to the 54 members of the Academy’s board of governors in an effort to restore good faith, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The magazine also noted that Academy CEO Dawn Hudson has already offered to arrange individual meetings between governors board members and Ryan. The board will convene on March 28 in a meeting that could debate the future of PwC’s 83-year partnership with the Academy.
According to the New York Times, Ryan spent hours after the Oscars debriefing with Cullinan, Ruiz, Academy officials and the show’s producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd. “I spent the bulk of the night with Brian trying to understand what happened,” Ryan told the newspaper. “There wasn’t much in terms of parties last night.”
In a statement posted on Monday, the accounting firm blamed Cullinan for the incident, while noting his partner, Ruiz, also did not act quickly enough to correct the error. “PwC Partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway,” read the statement.
They added, “Once the error occurred, protocols…