After winning the coveted Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand delivered a stunning speech that — among other things — highlighted something in the industry known as an “inclusion rider.” Much has already been said about McDormand’s acceptance speech and what she chose to highlight with it, but lost in the mess of the “nearly four-hour telecast” was the moment when she lost her Oscar statuette at the Governors Ball after party. USA Today initially said the award had simply been lost and relocated, but subsequent reports indicated it was stolen.
Per USA Today, the actress “was spotted crying emotionally outside the Governors Awards ball after giving up the search for the statuette on the premises.” She and husband Joel Coen eventually left the party without the award, but McDormand’s representative later told the paper, “Fran and Oscar are happily reunited and are enjoying an In-N-Out burger together.” No other details were provided at that time. The next morning, however, People provided said details courtesy of New York Times reporter Cara Buckley’s explanatory tweet and accompanying image.
Apparently, McDormand’s Oscar was briefly stolen by an unidentified man who was photographed and confronted by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s personal photographer, who recovered the statuette from him:
Security at the Governors Ball are 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.
Security at the Governors Ball are 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 pic.twitter.com/5tlsx4Ulwt
— Cara Buckley (@caraNYT) March 5, 2018
No one seems to know who the mystery would-be thief is, but seeing as how McDormand reportedly told security to “let him go,” it seems he has gotten away with his failed crime.
UPDATE — 11:40 am ET: According to The Hollywood Reporter, the unidentified Oscar thief has been arrested. Los Angeles police spokesperson Rosario Herrera broke the news to the outlet, but no other details were made available at the time.
UPDATE — 2 pm ET: Variety reports that Terry Bryant, the man who briefly whisked McDormand’s Oscar statuette from her at the Governors Ball after party, posted a short video of himself holding the incriminating item on Facebook. “Got this tonight!” he exclaims while posing with it. “This is mine. We got it tonight, baby!”
