The Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject has been long on drama.
In what was a classic example of acceptance speech thunder-stealing, aka "a Kanye," producer Elinor Burkett jumped onstage to say more than a few words while director Roger Ross Williams was accepting the Academy Award for Music by Prudence, breaking ceremony protocol and kinda making a jerk of herself in the process.
Burkett later said that Williams' elderly mother used her cane to block her passage to the stage.
Risky business, going after a man's mama like that...
That's ridiculous," Williams said Monday on Larry King Live when asked about the alleged cane-blocking episode.
"My mother got up to hug me. My mother is 87 years old and has bad knees. She just got excited like any mother would."
As for being interrupted while at the zenith of his career, Williams maintains that his Oscar night, which didn't end until 6 a.m., was undiminished by Burkett's bad behavior.
"It was a little shocking," he said. "I was there to talk about Prudence, we were there to honor Prudence and her incredible message."
But what prompted this glaring faux pas on the part of Burkett, who removed herself from the project almost a year ago due to creative differences and knew in advance that the Academy only allowed one person to accept the award in their category?
"The academy is very clear that only one person can speak," Williams told Salon.com Sunday. "I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie. She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock."
Weren't we all? At what was supposed to be a sort of relax-and-sit-back moment for viewers, we were all of a sudden forced into a double take.
Speaking of which, Burkett also explained her side of the story to Salon.
"What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court," she said about the film, which she maintains was her idea. "And then, as I'm sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn't get up there very fast."
"And you know," Burkett continued, "I felt my role in this has been denigrated again and again, and it wasn't going to happen this time."
Williams said he could see Burkett, whose name was announced along with his by presenter Zoe Saldana, coming up the aisle. He was surprised, but figured she was just going to stand next to him.
"Two years ago when I got on a plane to Zimbabwe, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up here. This is so exciting—" Williams squeezed out before Burkett confiscated the mic.
With that awkward moment in mind, King gave Williams a chance for a do-over tonight—and Williams went for it, going on for so long that King, ironically, had to cut him off.
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Would you consider Burkett's Kanye moment one of the best or worst Oscar night moments? We break it down for you right here.