A La La Land producer became the unlikely star of Hollywood’s night of nights, forced to interrupt Warren Beatty to announce the correct winner of the best picture Oscar.
Jordan Horowitz interrupted his fellow producer, Fred Berger, who was making his acceptance speech, after he realised a crucial and historic mistake had been made.
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“I’m sorry, no there’s a mistake…Moonlight… you won Best Picture,” a visibly shocked Horowitz said.
“This is not a joke,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Standing in front of veteran star Beatty, Horowitz held the card from inside the envelope up to the television cameras as the audience erupted into a standing ovation.
“I’d be really proud to hand this to my friend’s from Moonlight,” Horowitz told Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel.
He was then seen embracing Moonlight director, Barry Jenkins, as he handed over the golden statuette.
Horowitz, 37, has spent the past seven years working behind the scenes as a producer of Hollywood films.
In 2011, the New York native took out the Best Motion Picture gong at the Golden Globes for The Kids Are All Right.
He is the executive producer of an upcoming American sci-fi thriller television series Counterpart and has a drama about a woman with superhuman abilities called Fast Colour in pre-production.
La La Land is his best-known work.