Oscars’ last great mystery solved: Why was Ryan Gosling giggling in the corner?

- March 23, 2017

Ryan Gosling was seen giggling during all the confusion at the 2017 Oscars when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of Moonlight. He finally explains why.

It’s going to be a while before the Great Oscars Mix-up of 2017 is forgotten. But while most of what happened on the evening of February 27 has been investigated, most of the secrets revealed, there remains one mystery that has left everyone scratching their heads: Why was Ryan Gosling, star of La La Land, giggling away in the background during the confusion on stage.

Allow him to explain.

Speaking to People at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Gosling said, “What really was happening as I was watching, it was surreal anyway, I was watching people start to have this panicked reaction in the crowd and guys were coming on with headsets and I felt like someone had been hurt.”

“I thought there was some kind of medical situation, and I had this worst case scenario playing out in my head. And then I just heard, ‘Oh Moonlight won,’ and I was so relieved that I started laughing,” he said.

“But truthfully, I was also so thrilled that Moonlight won, I know the director ... I’ve worked with them before. It’s such a groundbreaking film, made for a million dollars, and incredible achievement and I’m so happy for them that they were being recognized,” he added.

Gosling’s film, La La Land, was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner by presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunawaye in what is being called ‘the biggest blunder in Oscars history’. Confusion broke out on stage as officials rushed out to correct the error. The real winner, Moonlight, was then announced by one of La La Land’s producers. It was later revealed that in a moment of absent-mindedness, a representative of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers handed Beatty and Dunaway the incorrect envelope.