Brett Ratner No Longer Producing The Oscars
At this point I have to imagine that Brett Ratner's publicity staff must be kind of upset with him. With Tower Heist opening this past weekend, the director has been making the press rounds and has been doing a pretty amazing job pissing off just about everyone. From his line about rehearsal being for "fags" to the detailing of his sex life on the Howard Stern show, Ratner has used every opportunity to make himself look incredibly unlikeable. Now it looks like it's biting him in the ass.
According to unnamed sources over at THR, Brett Ratner has been ousted as the producer of next year's Academy Awards. It's unknown if this means that Eddie Murphy, who signed on to host the awards ceremony in September, will continue to be a part of the show. Earlier today The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the folks behind the show, issued a statement saying that they believed Ratner's apology for the rehearsal remark was sincere and that it reflected "who he really is at heart." When asked for comment the Academy did not respond, but it's expected that they will be issuing a new statement later today.
One has to wonder what motivated the quick change of heart. From the sound of the statement this morning the Academy was ready to go to bat for Ratner, but now they are totally abandoning him. Perhaps they noticed that this isn't exactly the first time that Ratner has portrayed himself in a negative light and don't have the desire to keep cleaning up for him. Maybe the director has made yet another stupid remark that we've yet to hear about. All in all, this probably is the right move. We'll be sure to update this story as more develops.
UPDATE: Well that didn't take long. The Academy has posted a statement about the Brett Ratner business, and there's a bit of a twist: apparently Ratner is the one who wanted out. That, of course, is assuming that this isn't a situation where the Academy asked Ratner to turn in his resignation. Here is the full release:
UPDATE #2: THR has published Ratner's open letter mentioned in the Academy statement above. Read it below:
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