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Security boosted for accountants in Oscar gaffe who froze backstage

Security has been stepped up for the two accountants responsible for botching the Oscar best picture announcement, their company said on Thursday, as the ceremony's stage manager revealed the pair had to be pushed onstage to set things right after the gaffe.

'I still do not understand the delay,' says Oscars stage manager

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PwC accountant Brian Cullinan is seen at left alongside the Oscar night stage manager Gary Natoli, centre, and best picture presenter Warren Beatty. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)
Security has been stepped up for the two accountants responsible for botching the Oscar best picture announcement, their company said on Thursday, as the ceremony's stage manager revealed the pair had to be pushed onstage to set things right after the gaffe.

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said security was provided at the homes of Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz following Sunday's blunder, in which an envelope mix-up led to the announcement of the wrong film as best picture winner during the live TV broadcast.

PwC said it had hired security for the accountants behind the fiasco, Martha L. Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, seen here on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
PwC gave no details but celebrity  websiteTMZ.com said the pair had received death threats on social media and that photos of their homes had been posted online.

Cullinan, who posted a now-deleted backstage photo of Emma Stone on Twitter just before the gaffe, and Ruiz were barred on Wednesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from taking part in the Oscars ceremony or ballot counting ever again.

Oscar show stage manager Gary Natoli told Hollywood website TheWrap that  the two had frozen backstage when things went wrong during the climax of Sunday's ceremony.

Natoli said he was standing near Ruiz when actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly announced on stage that musical La La Land had won the top award for best picture. The winner of best picture was African-American independent film, Moonlight.

Beatty, seen at right with Dunaway on Oscar night, had paused and looked puzzled when he first opened the envelope. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

"We watched for about 10 more seconds, and during that entire time, Martha was no more than five feet away from us. When La La Land was announced, she did not try to get my attention, she did not say anything. And she's supposed to have memorized the winners," Natoli told TheWrap.

More than a minute passed before Cullinan said backstage that something was wrong.

Backstage crew were "trying to get Brian to go onstage and he wouldn't go," Natoli said.

"And Martha wouldn't go. We had to push them onstage, which was just shocking to me."

"I still do not understand the delay,"  Natoli said. "Brian should have run out there on his own. Martha should have run out there."

La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz brandishes the envelope and card revealing Moonlight as the true winner of best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, as presenter Warren Beatty looks on from right. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/Associated Press)

Natoli also blamed smaller, less legible writing on the winner envelopes.

"We know that Brian was taking pictures backstage when he should not have been, and not paying attention... And there was the new design of the envelope, which we had complained about to the Academy,"  Natoli said.

PwC, which has overseen Oscar balloting for 83 years, said on Thursday the two accountants were still employed by the company. ​

Natoli also blamed a new design for the Oscar envelopes, which featured tiny gold print on red envelopes that were not as clearly legible as in previous years. Brie Larson, left, is seen backstage being handed the best actor envelope by Cullinan. (Matt Sayles/Associated Press)
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