Hurt Locker Producer Banned from Oscars

The Hurt Locker co-producer Nicolas Chartier will be banned from the Academy Awards ceremony as a penalty for writing an email that ended up being forwarded a few too many times: He urged friends to urge Oscar voters to pick his film, not Avatar, for Best Picture. Academy rules forbid "casting a negative or derogatory light on a competing film." If The Hurt Locker does take the prize, Chartier will receive his statue sometime after the March 7 ceremony. The Los Angeles Times says denying a nominee entrance to the show is “virtually unprecedented.”