PwC accountant Brian Cullinan ‘told not to tweet during Oscars’

The accountant responsible for one of the biggest Oscars gaffes in history was told not to use social media during the ceremony, according to reports.

Brian Cullinan handed Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for Best Picture at Sunday night’s event, leading to Dunaway announcing La La Land as the winner instead of Moonlight.

Cullinan had reportedly tweeted a photo, which has since been deleted, of Emma Stone after she won Best Actress at 9:05pm – just minutes before the Best Picture blunder.

“Brian was asked not to tweet or use social media during the show,” a source told People.

“He was fine to tweet before he arrived at the red carpet but once he was under the auspices of the Oscar night job that was to be his only focus.

“Tweeting right before the Best Picture category was announced was not something that should have happened.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers – the accountancy firm that oversees the counting of the Oscars ballots – took full responsibility for the blunder, but Cullinan has yet to publicly comment.

PwC’s US chairman and senior partner Tim Ryan said Cullinan feels “very, very terrible”.

He told Variety that Cullinan had a pile of envelopes for presenters entering from his side of the stage and a pile of “back-up” envelopes for presenters entering from the other side of the stage.

He pulled the lead actress envelope from his “back-up” pile and handed it to Beatty.

“We clearly made a mistake and once the mistake was made, we corrected it and owned up to it,” Ryan said. “He feels very, very terrible and horrible. He is very upset about the mistake. And as a firm, given that he is a partner of our firm, it is also my mistake and our mistake and we all feel very bad.”

Standard Online has contacted PwC for comment.

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