martha brian© Photo: Getty Images

Oscars accountants forced to hire security guards as threats are made on their lives

TV & Film Editor
March 3, 2017

According to reports, the pair responsible for the Best Pictures mix up at this year's Academy Awards ceremony, Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, have been forced to up their security after receiving death threats on social media. According to TMZ, photos of their homes have also been posted online, and the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have confirmed that they have both received security detail.

READ: Jimmy Kimmel reacts to Oscars gaffe: 'Clyde threw Bonnie under the bus'

© Photo: Getty Images

Martha and Brian have received death threats

Brian and Martha were considered responsible for the huge blunder at this years' Oscars ceremony which saw La La Land announced as the winner of Best Picture, when the award actually should have gone to Moonlight. Several members of the La La Land team had already given their speeches before the news broke that there had been a mistake, and the show's stage manager Gary Natoli revealed that Brian and Martha didn't react to the blunder. "We watched for about 10 more seconds, and during that entire time, Martha was no more than five feet away from us," Gary told The Wrap. "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 memorised the winners."

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He continued: "I still do not understand the delay. Brian should have run out there on his own. Martha should have run out there. 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." The wrong winner was announced by Bonnie and Clyde actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, and Warren immediately spoke to the audience about how the error was made. "I want to tell you what happened," he explained during the confusion onstage. "I opened the envelope and it said 'Emma Stone, La La Land'. That's why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn't trying to be funny."

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