It's not just Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier who has been disinvited from this year's Oscars ceremony. According to reports, the British comic Sacha Baron Cohen has now joined him out in the cold.
Baron Cohen was originally scheduled to present an award alongside Ben Stiller, only for Academy bosses to get jittery over his planned routine. Sources suggest that the Brüno star was to have posed as a blue-skinned female Na'vi from Avatar, while Stiller translated her speech. The skit was to end with the Na'vi claiming to be pregnant with the love child of director James Cameron.
Oscar organisers allegedly decided that the sketch risked offending Cameron. "Let's just say that Cameron isn't known to be, shall we say, self-deprecating," an insider told New York magazine.
However, Cameron himself claims that he had no involvement in Baron Cohen's removal. "If they want to poke fun at Avatar on Sunday night, that's OK by me," he assured E! Online.
Yesterday, Baron Cohen's representative Matt Labov confirmed that the comic had been dropped. "I hate to use the term because it's so ubiquitous, but there were creative differences," Labov admitted. "Nothing acrimonious, but both sides felt that since they couldn't agree, Sacha might as well remain in London."
