Faye Dunaway on the Best Picture Flub: 'I Really Fucked That Up'

By Bobby Finger  |  February 28, 2017 | 2:40pm
CelebritiesDirt Bag

Had the Oscar for Best Picture been awarded to Moonlight without incident on Sunday night, The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman likely would have written a more typical party report, filled with observations about who ignored whom, and overheard conversations between Nicole Kidman and Emma Stone. But because of the, uh, envelope problem, it opens with some commentary from Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy.

Isaacs was “sitting on a white sofa staring at her phone” when Schulman asked what was “going through her mind.” With or without looking up from her phone (that part wasn’t clear), she said:

“Horror. I just thought, What? What? I looked out and I saw a member of Pricewaterhouse coming on the stage, and I was, like, Oh, no, what—what’s happening? What what WHAT? What could possibly . . . ? And then I just thought, Oh, my God, how does this happen? How. Does. This. Happen.”

She then sighed and said, “And it was such a wonderful show.”

Less horrified was Faye Dunaway, who misinterpreted the envelope and proclaimed La La Land the winner. Though I’d never place the blame on her or Warren (this was all Brian’s fault, remember?), the legendary actress was overheard accepting responsibility while at the bar, where “one reporter had overheard her saying, ‘I really fucked that up.’”

[The New Yorker]

Uhhhhhhhhhh, I didn’t expect to read gossip about Maureen Stapleton and Mike Nichols this morning, but here we are. In an interview with the late director published in Ron Fassler’s new memoir, he claims Stapleton once got hammered and asked him to fuck her. Wait, no, she ORDERED him to. Said Nichols:

“[She] threw herself on the steps before the doors and said, ‘Fuck me or I’ll start yelling “rape”! It’s a mercy fuck. You owe it to me.’”

And now, Page Six’s kicker:

It isn’t clear if he took her up on the demand. “I miss her horribly,” he added of the late star.

[Page Six]

I’m really looking forward to summer so I can go to the beach and recreate this photo.