Terry Bryant Accused of Stealing Frances McDormand's Best Actress Oscar Charged With Grand Theft
Terry Bryant is believed to have snatched the award off a table during a post-Oscars bash, cops said.
Frances McDormand has been reunited with her Oscar after police arrested a man they said made off with the best actress winner’s coveted award.
The Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri actress stole the show with an emotional call to arms following her win Sunday.
“If I could have all the women stand up with me in this moment,” she said. “Look around, everybody, look around, ladies and gentlemen; because we all have stories to tell, and we all have projects we need to finance.
“I have two words to leave with you tonight: Inclusion rider,” McDormand, 60, continued, referring to a requirement made by actors in contracts that the cast and crew they work with be diverse.
But McDormand’s impressive win and speech were briefly overshadowed when her Oscar was stolen at the official Oscars after-party, the Governor’s Ball.
After getting her Oscar engraved, McDormand realized the award had disappeared.
McDormand was reportedly seen crying with her husband, director Joel Coen, when the hunt for the Academy Award came up empty.
But a photographer working for Chef Wolfgang Puck, who caters the annual party, spotted a man carrying the Oscar, freshly engraved with McDormand’s name, New York Times reporter Cara Buckley said on Twitter.
“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,” Buckley wrote.
Terry Bryant, 47, was arrested and charged with grand theft. He is being held on $20,000 bail.
A man with the same name who resembled the man in the photo Puck’s photographer captured of the alleged thief posted a video on Facebook of himself with an Oscar.
“What’s up babies? Look it baby … got this tonight. This is mine!” Bryant says to the camera, while kissing the statue. “Look, I got this, this is mine! I’m about to go to so many parties.”
“That’s your ticket to anything you want to go to,” a woman tells Bryant.
“I know!” he replies. “You know what? I can’t believe I got this.”
He tells the woman he won an Academy Award for best producer and offers to let her hold the statue before the video cuts out.
The Oscar was returned to McDormand before she arrived at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.
“Fran and Oscar are happily reunited and are enjoying an In-N-Out burger together,” a rep for McDormand told USA Today.
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