“Hurt Locker” Producer Blows His Chance to Attend the Oscars

Take this as a lesson folks; think twice before hitting send. No matter the subject or the audience, even the most heartfelt and well-intentioned emails can get you into trouble. And no, pleading ignorance won’t necessarily diffuse the situation.

Onto the email that turned an Oscar invitation into a ticking time bomb…

First-time Oscar-nominated producer Nicolas Chartier was uninvited to the Hollywood’s biggest night, by sending out an email. A few weeks ago Chartier sent an email to select Oscar voters in an effort to promote the relatively unknown ”Hurt Locker” and create some buzz against other nominees and box office giant “Avatar.” In the email, Chartier asked the recipients to vote for “Hurt Locker” as best picture and spread the word to all other voters to do the same. Little did Chartier know that his email would cause such a media explosion.

What in the email set the Academy off?

His email was seen as a blatant attempt to beg for Oscar votes and to some, as disparaging fellow best picture nominee “Avatar”.  Worst of all, even if Chartier didn’t know he was doing it at the time, the content of his email violated Academy rules.  Chartier has since written an apology… 

“My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it…I should have taken the time to read the rules.”

As I said, think twice before hitting send. Once you do, you can’t take the email back and pleading ignorance won’t always help you;  it certainty didn’t help Nicolas Chartier because the Academy has officially uninvited him to this year’s Award ceremony.