Fears Avatar sketch would offend director

Sacha Baron Cohen has been ditched as an Oscars presenter for fear he would upset Avatar director James Cameron.

It is the second time the Borat star has been dropped from the 2010 ceremony – as he had been mooted as the main presenter until Academy Awards vetoed him for being too unpredictable.

Instead, producers had lined him up to appear a comedy sketch, in which he would play one of Avatar's female blue-skinned aliens, known as Na'vi, alongside Ben Stiller as a translator.

Cohen’s character would eventually claim she was pregnant with James Cameron's love child – and demand a Jerry Springer-style confrontation with the director.

A spokesperson for Baron Cohen reportedly said he would not be performing at Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony because of ‘creative differences’ but insisting it was ‘nothing acrimonious’.

But Cameron said he would not have taken offence at the joke, telling E! Online: ‘If they want to poke fun at Avatar Sunday, that's OK by me.

‘The Oscars are a celebration of movies ... even the gaffes and out of bounds stuff are all part of the fun.’

Published: 4 Mar 2010