According to New York magazine's Vulture blog, Sacha Baron Cohen has been axed from the Oscar telecast because the Borat/Brüno performer who once landed on Eminem's lap was supposed to have appeared in a sketch with Ben Stiller that might have offended Best Director nominee James Cameron. The Avatar filmmaker has a reputation of being short tempered, and his blockbusting sci-fi epic is in the running for nine Oscars.
"An insider" told Vulture that Oscarcast co-producer Bill Mechanic feared that the Baron Cohen-Stiller skit might leave Cameron so incensed that "he might even walk out of the Oscar broadcast on live TV."
In the skit, Baron Cohen was to show up 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."
Mechanic was head of 20th Century Fox when Cameron’s expensive Titanic was being produced by the studio.
I've contacted the Academy, but haven't heard back from them on the issue.
Photo: Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno (Universal)