The great La La Land–Moonlight Best Picture mix-up of 2017 may have tarnished the reputation of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and will make us all question whatever happens at future Oscar ceremonies, but at least it saved Matt Damon from mild embarrassment. In an interview on The Bill Simmons Podcast, host Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he had one last joke about his supposed feud with the Great Wall star that was nixed because the Oscars were melting down before our very eyes. “The plan for the last joke was — the best picture winner is announced, they make a speech, I was assuming the best picture was not going to be Manchester by the Sea [which Damon produced]. I said to [Damon] if it’s not Manchester by the Sea, I’m going to be sitting next to you and it’s going to be my revenge for the Emmys,†Kimmel said, referring to a bit at the Emmys where Damon ribbed him over his Outstanding Variety Series loss.
I’d be sitting next to him and it would start on me. I’d start wrapping the show up but then the camera would widen and we’d see that Matt would be sitting next to me and I would say, ‘Well, you know it’s unbelievable, you know Casey [Affleck] won [best actor] and Kenneth [Lonergan] won [best original screenplay]. There’s only one person who didn’t win tonight and it’s you.’ It would have been a nice little button to the whole night.
Instead of his nice little button, Kimmel had to deal with a whole hunk of chaos. But hey, if we’re still looking for suspects, aside from those confused accountants, Damon sure has some motive.