During an opening comedy skit by Steven Martin and Chris Rock, Martin mispronounced Cynthia Erivo’s name, Best Actress nominee and the only black actor nominee this year:
Chris Rock correcting Steve Martin’s pronunciation of Cynthia Erivo’s last name is a good mood for the night.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 10, 2020
Cynthia Ervio or Erivo? Did you hear Chris Rock emphasize the correct way to pronounce it? #Oscars
— Justin Hinton (@JustinWLOS) February 10, 2020
Cynthia Erivo is the only black #Oscar actor nominee this year and did Steve Martin just go and mispronounce her name?
— Joy Press (@Joypress) February 10, 2020
This happened during while the pair was calling out the Academy over its lack of diversity:
Chris Rock: “Cynthia [Erivo] did such a great job in ‘Harriet’ hiding black people, the Academy got her to hide black nominees.” Boom.
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) February 10, 2020
Great job, Academy . . . and Martin:
Cutting to Cynthia Erivo when you’re making the token Black nominee jokes kinda sucks? #Oscars2020
— Joi Childs (@jumpedforjoi) February 10, 2020
Martin later took to Twitter to admit his error:
Make that Erivo!
— Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) February 10, 2020
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