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More and more news is coming out about the partners at the Oscars
First we speak about the two partners from the Oscars Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan. They had both been fired from the Oscars engagement since our last podcast. They are no longer going to be working counting ballots for the Oscars. The Oscar says they’re going to keep PwC for now. But they are considering whether they’re going to keep them going forward.
This week there is also some pretty bad pictures they came out showing Brian tweeting backstage with multiple envelopes in his hand. Now he ultimately ended up giving the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty. But these photos really showed him going to town on his social media minutes before Warren Beatty announced the wrong Oscar.
And the real reason why these two got fired was that after the wrong best picture was announced by Faye Dunaway they failed to act. Martha Ruiz and Brian didn't go on stage to correct their errors for another few minutes. And the producer of the Oscars said that they weren't ready for the moment. He said that they had rehearsed what they were supposed to do if the wrong winner was announced, and they still didn’t do it. The stage manager and the producers had to push them out on stage to correct their error.
Listening to one of my favorite podcasts. Which is the Bill Simmons podcast. He had Jimmy Kimmel on recently and this was one of Jimmy Kimmel’s first interviews since the Oscars.
Now these people are accountants at all. Bill Simmons is just a sports journalist. Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian. All they could talk about was how they this Oscar screwup was. Bill Simmons went so far to say that it would be one of the first paragraphs in Jimmy Kimmel’s obituary. Jimmy Kimmel laughed that off and said I really hope not. To which Bill Simmons said, I don’t think you know how big a deal this thing is. This is still going to be a big deal in a few months. When he said that, all I could do is shake my head. When I first saw this news, I thought it was a huge deal for PwC, but I didn’t think it would be as big as it is for them now. Their name and their brand, PwC, is always going to equal biggest Oscar mistake in history for the average American.
That’s why I think ultimately that Brian is going to have to retire or resign. Most likely I believe he will resign. I think PwC is standing behind him right now because of his leadership position and his years of service. As this bad news for the firm keeps snowballing, I don’t think they can keep standing by him.
Additionally, I don’t think he’ll be able to stay at PwC himself. I don’t think he’ll be able to put up with the embarrassment and the looks that he is going to get from his peers and his clients. That would be a big task for somebody that was mentally tough and prepared for it. The question is is he mentally tough enough and easy ready to handle all that. I don’t think he is and I don’t think Pricewaterhousecoopers is prepared to stand behind a man that is going to get a lot of heat. I really wouldn’t wish this situation upon anybody, and I hope that he ends up okay on the other side of this.
It has now been confirmed that Brian Cullinan wanted to be a celebrity himself. Variety came out with a piece stating that Cullinan wanted to perform a sketch at the Oscars. He pitched an idea to the producers of the Oscars to perform a sketch on stage with jimmy kimmel.
I have been saying all along that these two partners wanted to be celebrities. More specifically Brian. He had been taking tons of pictures with celebrities at the Oscars in the prior and current year. This just shows how much he wanted to be involved in the process. I think that should give some hesitation to PwC as to whether they should keep them. It was pretty evident how this error could occur. Yet PwC took no steps to monitor his social media, and make sure he was ready for this stage. And now they may pay a severe price for his actions.
Finally the partners now have security after their families have been threatened. Their addresses have been released on the internet along with photos of their homes. There are even photos of Brian's wife shopping that were taken by the paparazzi.
Check out our website for more details:
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-partners-receive-threats-2017-oscars-mistake/
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-fired-oscars/