Accountant Wasn't Supposed to Tweet During Oscars: Source

Handing out the correct envelopes 'was to be his only focus'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2017 7:54 PM CST
Accountant Wasn't Supposed to Tweet During Oscars: Source
Martha L. Ruiz, left, and Brian Cullinan from PricewaterhouseCoopers arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

The PwC accountant whose backstage tweet may have distracted him enough to cause the biggest flub in Oscars history was specifically asked not to tweet during the awards show, a source tells People. "Brian [Cullinan] was asked not to tweet or use social media during the show. 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," the source says. "Tweeting right before the Best Picture category was announced was not something that should have happened." The tweet in question, along with others from backstage, have since been deleted. PwC said in a statement Monday night that "once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner," per Us.

Meanwhile, the Academy continues to investigate the incident and its relationship with PwC; the Telegraph reports the accounting firm is in "crisis meetings" with the Academy in an attempt to salvage the 83-year-long relationship between the two. Sources tell Deadline one possible change being discussed is adding two more PwC auditors backstage, one on each side of the stage, so that the extra auditor could act as a fail-safe in case the first auditor hands a presenter the wrong envelope again. As for whether the Academy might sever its relationship with PwC entirely, a source tells People the issue is "very complicated" because "vote-tallying and the Oscar night job is just one part of what PwC does with the Academy." Page Six points out that, in an interview earlier this month, Cullinan had noted, "It doesn’t sound very complicated, but you have to make sure you give the presenter the right envelope." (More Oscars stories.)

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