Sacha Baron Cohen’s Avatar Sketch Is Cut From Oscar Telecast

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by BigSalad, Mar 4, 2010.

  1. BigSalad

    BigSalad

    Just a week ago, Sacha Baron Cohen — the alter ego of Borat and Brüno — was announced as an Oscar presenter by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Now, suddenly, Baron Cohen has vanished from that list. Why is he gone from the show? Because one of the broadcast's producers was scared he might offend gazillionaire Best Director nominee James Cameron.

    An insider familiar with the Oscar telecast tells Vulture that an Avatar sketch planned by Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller was nixed yesterday by show producer Bill Mechanic, who worried that Cameron would be so offended by it that he might even walk out of the Oscar broadcast on live TV.

    So what skit could possibly so incense the HMFIC?

    Our insider informs us that Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.

    http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/03/sacha_baron_cohen_james_camero.html