Sacha Baron Cohen Dropped as Oscar Presenter, History of Oscar Smear Campaigns

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Lolita Carrico

Sacha Baron Cohen has been dropped as a presenter at the Oscars on Sunday night over fears he might anger Avatar director James Cameron.

The Daily Mail reports that Cohen planned to poke fun at Avatar by dressing up as one of its characters  -  a blue-skinned, female Na’vi  -  and revealing that ‘she’ was pregnant with James Cameron’s love child.  However, fears over Cameron’s reaction led show producer Bill Mechanic to cut the sketch and order Baron Cohen, 38, to be dumped from his first ever Oscars appearance.

The drama surrounding The Hurt Locker is an example of the pitfalls of running in the modern day Oscar race.  An article in Newsweek examines negative campaigning during Oscar season.

As Sasha Stone at Awards Daily accurately points out, this kind of negative campaigning has unfortunately become a trademark of the modern-day Oscar season. Studios, now more than ever, rely on publicists to bring home the gold with a carefully measured campaign strategy.

First Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier was un-invited to this Sunday’s Academy Awards because of emails soliciting votes.  But as we reported earlier today, Hurt Locker producers are being sued by an Army sergeant who claims the film is based on his life.