Sadly, the most immediately obvious solution to the trick is still the most likely (and, incidentally, the least exciting); all the showmanship building up to his precognition reveal was smoke and mirrors, with some last minute sleight of hand seeing Harris switch the contents of the briefcase with an envelope quickly rushed up after the "predicted" events has occurred. It has none of the guess-work the complex versions required and is more than serviceable for what is essentially a comedy bit. The execution of the trick's prestige contains a major error that backs this train of thought up; Harris stumbled over Chiwetel Ejiofor's name when revealing he'd only messed up earlier to highlight the common mispronunciation. More so than out-of-it Terrence Howard being too ridiculous to not be real, that's the biggest suggestion this there's a rather mundane answer to all this. The big question this leaves is how Harris made the switch. It would have to have been the presenter himself doing it - not only was the case viewable for the whole show, the guesses covered right up until the reveal - meaning he probably did it all right in front of an audience of millions. Now that's impressive, even if it was just for a rather lacklustre joke. How do you think Neil Patrick Harris predicted the Oscars? Have your say down in the comments.
