[CliffFletcher]

Yeah, the people with the lowest status were definitely thrown under the bus.

At last, a new Oscars cliche: ‘I’d like to blame all the little people …’

...And for sure, the pain is real. Though not perhaps as real as the pain of Ruiz and Cullinan, who now have to have security in their homes because their addresses were widely disseminated and they and their families have received death threats, because that is how the world works now when individuals are singled out in the media and most people have access to the internet.

This, incidentally, is mentioned just as an aside at the bottom of articles sneering at Cullinan and Ruiz, because what really matters is that for two minutes people thought the wrong movie won, not that some poor muppets are currently living in fear. After all, God forbid Warren Beatty should feel awkward for even a second.

Leaving aside the very strong urge to shout, “FOR GOD’S SAKE, GET A GRIP – IT WAS A MIX-UP AT AN AWARDS CEREMONY”, there is no doubt that Cullinan and Ruiz had one job, and they fumbled it. But if anyone thinks this means they now deserve to be humiliated and traduced on a global scale, well, they care about the sanctity of the Oscars a lot more than I do, and I’ve been four times.

The Academy found the mix-up humiliating; the truth is, it’s been the reaction of all the key players afterwards – the Academy, the celebrities, the media – that has been embarrassing. To err is human, to kick people in the face to salvage the egos of the beautiful folk – well, that’s Hollywood.