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This year’s Academy Awards is nothing short of eventful. Aside from plentiful of surprise winners including Jordan Peele of Get Out, the first black man to win the best screenwriter award, and The Shape of Water, which won Best Picture over heavy hitters like The Post, Dunkirk, Call Me by Your Name, a lot of the excitement happened after the award show- including an actual crime.
Following the on-air festivities, Frances McDormand’s Oscar statue was stolen by 47-year-old Terry Bryant during the Governor’s Ball. The statue, which McDormand won for Best Actress, was swiped by Bryant from her table at the post-Oscar party. Interestingly, Bryant made no attempts to hide the statue that he just stole. The self-proclaimed “A-list Producer Entertainment journalist, A&E Editor Actor, TV host, U.N. Ambassador” posted a Facebook live video parading the statue around and proclaiming his supposed “win.”
“What’s up everybody? I got this. This is mine! [I’m] about to go to so many parties. [This] is your ticket into anything you want to go to.” said Bryant in his Facebook live video.
According to Cara Buckley, New York Times culture reporter present at the Governor’s Ball, it was revealed that one of Wolfgang Puck’s photographers stopped Bryant and took the statue from him:
“Security at the Governors Ball is looking for this guy, who grabbed Frances McDormand’s Oscar and ran out with it. Wolfgang Puck’s photographer stopped him, got the Oscar back, and the guy disappeared back into the ball. Apparently, Frances has said to let him go. #Oscars #Drama” read the tweet.
Bryant is facing one felony count of grand theft. He was booked 11:50 on the same night with a bail set at $20,000.
This is not the first time Bryant had run-ins with the law. According to a report by Variety, Bryan has been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to burglary and disobeying a court order. In 2001, he was sentenced to probation for assault and theft. In 1995, he was sent to jail for 180 days for car theft.
Nevertheless, aside from the criminal incident, McDormand, who won for her role in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, also made waves during this year’s Academy Awards for her acceptance speech. During the time at the podium, the actress urged her colleagues in the industry to demand inclusion riders:
“Okay, look around everybody. Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need to be financed. Don’t talk to us about it at the parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days, or you can come to ours, whatever suits you best, and we’ll tell you all about them. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider”
An inclusion rider basically allows actors to use their influence in order to foster a more diverse casting in Hollywood in terms of race and gender. It is something that they can put on their contracts that would require production to be more diverse in hiring the cast and crew.
