'Briefy's' Amazing Journey to the Oscars

MIAMI, FL — While Oscar grabs the spotlight on Sunday, a number of local Patches across the United States and 11 cities in total— can say they were part of this year’s journey of “Briefy” to the Dolby Theater.

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“Briefy” is the nickname given to two high-quality leather attaches that are used by PricewaterhouseCoopers to transport the names of the Oscar Winners each year.

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They arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday as voting wrapped up for this year’s event, but not before a whirlwind tour of the United States and Mexico that included stops in a lounge chair on South Beach, a deep-dish pizzeria in Chicago and the New York Stock Exchange before landing in the arms of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

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Some of the stops were chronicled in Patch’s Bulletin Boards in Miami, Cleveland, Chicago and Minneapolis by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which leads the Oscar voting on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

“We think it’s a great way to showcase different community events. The briefcase is an icon so it’s passing through community,” explained Megan DiSciullo of PricewaterhouseCoopers as to why Patch was selected to help get the word out on Briefy’s travels. “We thought that that would be something the community would be interested in.”

Both briefcases bearing the firm’s PWC logo and the iconic Oscar image will make their own red carpet entrances.

They will be carried into the theater and held by balloting co-leaders Brian Cullinan and Martha L. Ruiz,” according to DiSciullo, who said that 2014 Best Actress winner Cate Blanchett made a “fake grab” for one of the cases as she passed by Cullinan on the red carpet.

In reality, the joke was on the actress.

“Brian knew at that point that she had won for best actress for ‘Blue Jasmine’ and she hadn’t at that point,” DiSciullo explained.

Cullinan and Ruiz will each be holding an identical Briefy on Sunday with a duplicate set of winning envelopes.

“One stands stage left and one stands stage right,” she said, adding that presenters will take their envelopes from either Cullinan or Ruiz depending on which side of the stage they enter from. “They give it to the presenters who then go out and announce the winners,” she said.

The 89th annual Academy Awards take place on Sunday with the red carpet event scheduled to air at 7 p.m. followed by the award ceremony at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

“It is currently in LA. It is prepping for the Oscars, going through a full buffing and primping,” said DiSciullo of Briefy. "It is going to be at some VIP Hollywood events this weekend and then head off to the Oscars.”

Here is the route that Briefy took to Los Angeles with pictures from each of the cities it visited:

New York, New York Jan 23-25

Boston, Massachusetts Jan 26-28

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Jan 29-31

Cleveland, Ohio Feb 1-3

Chicago, Illinois Feb 4-7

Minneapolis, Minnesota Feb 8-9

Miami, Florida Feb 10-13

Dallas, Texas Feb 14-15

Houston, Texas Feb 16-18

Mexico City, Mexico Feb 19-21

Los Angeles Feb. 21-26

In Miami, the briefcase visited the Versace mansion, Art Deco buildings along Miami Beach, a marina and even the Gulfstream horse track.

“We do have someone from the PWC team who travels with the briefcase,” said DiSciullo. “It travels with that person and travels in the seat with them. It does not travel first class."

While there’s no way to be sure, DiSciullo said that Briefy is almost certainly female.

“We call her a fabulous diva,” she insisted.

Photos courtesy of PricewaterhouseCoopers