A burst pipe in a women's bathroom of the Dolby Theatre flooded the star-filled lobby about 30 minutes before the 85th Oscars kicked off.
The pipe exploded when the mother of Kief Davidson, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary short "Open Heart," flushed a toilet, sending water into the lobby where nearly every nominee and studio head was walking in.
Update: Davidson told TheWrap that the pipe behind the toilet ruptured suddenly, not as a result of flushing. "As she was about to use the toilet the pipe bust and it shot out like a geyser," he wrote in an email clarifying the incident. "She did not flush."
Lucy Walker, a 2012 Oscar-nominee in the same category for her short "The Tsunami and The Cherry Blossom," was there at the time, and told TheWrap that Davidson's mother was soaked.
Also read: TheWrap's Complete Oscars Coverage
"The poor woman came out looking like a scene from 'Carrie,'" she told TheWrap, referencing the 1976 horror film, but emphasizing that it was only water. "She was drenched."
Walker helped the woman dry off, and she was able to attend the ceremony. Several other women in the bathroom were soaked by the blast of water, according to other witnesses.
Organizers were forced to use large blue vacuums to suck up the water as the puddle darkened tan, square-patterned carpet.
Sharon Waxman contributed to this report.