When they first came out on stage, I watched Faye and Warren and thought, "gee, he hasn't aged well and he seems a little...doddery, a little confused." Then when he fumbled with the envelope and then stood there gawking at the card for so long I thought, "maybe it's dementia setting in and he really cannot read what is on the card....." Announcement was made, people started heading to the stage...... Then during the one guy's acceptance speech for "La La Land" I realized that there seemed to be an unusual amount of activity behind him, even allowing for the fact there were a bunch of people up there on stage; when I suddenly saw a guy with techie headgear out there, too, I thought, "OK, something is really not right here....." Even so, when the announcement was made that the Best Picture award was actually supposed to go to "Moonlight," my jaw dropped open and I stared in astonishment. Aieeeee!!! What a colossal snafu!
Warren's attempt to explain things didn't really help; what he or Faye should have done if in fact they saw that the card was the one naming the Best Actress and her film rather than the one for Best Picture, was to have immediately said, "oops, looks like someone gave us the wrong envelope, wrong card!" and waited until the correct one was brought out to them before making any announcement about the actual winner in the Best Picture category. I guess Warren was too confused and Faye didn't really grasp the situation so neither of them had the presence of mind to do that.
I'd be surprised if it were PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) who put the wrong card into the envelope marked "Best Picture," but I suppose it IS possible. More likely someone handed Faye and Warren the wrong envelope in the first place, especially if there were duplicates for each category. Anyway, this certainly made for a surprise ending to the show!