The Oscars are notoriously bad at rewarding comedies, but now it seems they’re actively engaging in keeping the laughs out of the ceremony itself. Sacha Baron Cohen – of Ali G, Borat and Bruno fame – was set to present an award with Ben Stiller at Sunday night’s ceremony where the pair were also to perform a brief skit. However, it seems the producers of the ceremony lost their sense of humour with Cohen’s agent telling New York magazine: “I hate to use the term, because it’s so ubiquitous, but there were ‘creative differences’”.
It is believed that Cohen would have taken to the stage dressed as a character from James Cameron’s Avatar, a blue-skinned female Na’vi. Stiller was to translate Cohen’s Na’vi speak, eventually telling the audience that Cohen was pregnant with Cameron’s love-child. An Oscar source told the magazine: “let’s just say that Cameron isn’t known to be, shall we say, self-deprecating,” and so it seems the ceremony will not only be perpetuating the director’s ego with a boat-load of awards but they’ll also be protecting it from the odd joke. It all seems to be leading towards another Oscar love-in for Cameron following his night in 1998 when he declared himself ‘king of the world’. Here’s hoping some surprise winners wipe the smug smile off his face come Sunday night.
