Academy will keep accounting firm PwC for next Oscars show, despite flub

It's official: Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers isn't getting the boot after the biggest flub in Oscars history.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs confirms the Academy's Board of Governors has decided to retain the services of PwC, following a meeting Tuesday night.

"After a thorough review, including an extensive presentation of revised protocols and ambitious controls, the Board has decided to continue working with PwC," Isaacs wrote Wednesday in a letter to Academy members.

She adds that after 84 years working with the accountants, "we’ve been unsparing in our assessment that the mistake made by representatives of the firm was unacceptable."

Backstage at the Oscars on Feb. 26, longtime PwC accountant Brian Cullinan gave the wrong envelope to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, causing the two actors to announce  La La Land as best picture. In actuality, Moonlight won the top prize.

The fiasco caused major confusion onstage, and became a black eye for the Academy and PwC in following weeks.

Veteran Oscars stage manager Gary Natoli told The Wrap both PwC accountants "froze" when the wrong best picture name was called. “I’m sure they’re very lovely people, but they just didn’t have the disposition for this,” he said. “You need somebody who’s going to be confident and unafraid.”

Though PwC will stay on, changes are in store.

It was announced earlier that neither Cullinan nor PwC accountant Martha Ruiz, who also was present that night, will return to the show.

Now, according to Isaacs, a third accountant will be onsite at the Oscars ceremony. (Historically, there have been two, with one in each wing.) The third PwC official "will sit in the control room with the show’s director throughout the ceremony," Isaacs wrote.

And it's goodbye, social media, as Isaacs confirms the "removal of electronic devices from backstage." Cullinan drew criticism for tweeting photos from the wings, particularly of Emma Stone after her best-actress win, right before handing Beatty the wrong envelope for best picture. The Academy has said that the accountants were instructed not to tweet during the telecast.

Next year, PwC will participate in rehearsals "for possible onstage issues," and the Academy will add "improvements to onstage envelope category verification," Isaacs notes.

Additional oversight will be provided by PwC U.S. chairman Tim Ryan, Isaacs says. Ryan took full responsibility for the flub after the show, blaming the mix-up on "a human error" when he spoke USA TODAY.