Busy Philipps recalls 2017 Oscars mixup that happened alongside Ben Affleck

Busy Philipps is still shaking her head and laughing over the unforgettable Oscars blunder of 2017, when the Best Picture envelope mix-up left the world in a jaw-drop moment altogether—and apparently had her counting on Batman himself to fix it.

During a recent chat with longtime friend Michelle Williams on QVC+ HSN+, the Girls5eva star, 45, relived what she calls one of the most chaotic award show moments ever. 

“It’s just hours and hours and you’ve barely had anything to drink, and you have nothing to eat. You're just out of it. You’re there, just witnessing it, the chaos,” Philipps said, recalling the surreal scene when Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as the winner—before the real Best Picture, Moonlight, was revealed.

“Which also makes sense that he said the wrong thing,” she added, clearly empathizing with the Bonnie and Clyde star’s mix-up.

Sitting front row that night alongside Michelle Williams and Ben Affleck, Philipps remembers being in the perfect position to see it all go down in real time. 

“This crazy thing happens. We knew because we were right there in the front row,” she said.

Cue the confusion—and a moment of misguided superhero hope. 

According to Williams, Philipps turned to Affleck during the frenzy and urged him to leap into action. “You turned to him and said, ‘Do something! Do something!’” Williams reminded her, laughing.

Her logic? As Williams explained, “because he was Batman.” Naturally.

“And you expected he was going to save the day,” she added, as off-camera laughs rolled in.

“That’s right,” Philipps agreed, nodding in full remembrance of her panicked plea. “I don’t know Ben Affleck — I just was like, ‘He’s Batman, he’s a movie star, he can go onstage and handle it!’” Spoiler alert: “He could not,” she added, as Williams burst into laughter.

Philipps even pointed out that Matt Damon was sitting nearby at the time. But despite the A-list superhero energy in the room, no one swooped in to stop the mayhem.

The two stars also revisited the now-iconic photo of themselves watching the drama unfold—a moment frozen forever in Oscars history. “It’s iconic,” Philipps said, clearly owning her place in that meme-worthy reaction shot.

Back in a 2017 Instagram Story, Philipps gave a play-by-play of the exact second the truth spilled out backstage. 

“La La Land got up there, all of a sudden this stage manager or somebody who worked there with a microphone crouched in front of Casey [Affleck] and started whispering into his microphone really urgently and saying, ‘It’s a mistake! Moonlight is supposed to be Best Picture. It’s a mistake! It’s a mistake! Moonlight is Best Picture!’”

“We all heard it right there — like right in the front,” she added. “Nobody else heard it.”

Seven years later, the memory lives on—and so does the hilarious image of a bewildered Busy Philipps turning to Batman and expecting him to fix the Oscars. Hey, when chaos strikes, go big or go home, right?