With the Oscars fast approaching, word has been leaking about what viewers can’t expect from the ceremony. One story that came out this week was the Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Bruno/Borat/Ali G, would be a presenter. This meant we could expect some weird and wonderful to happen, as Mr. Cohen is known for going off-script and ratcheting up the embarrassment level for his victim.

Further details emerged that Sacha Cohen would be dressed as a female Na’Vi from the movie Avatar, his words interpreted by co-presenter Ben Stiller. At some point, it was to be revealed that Sacha’s Na’Vi character is pregnant with James Cameron’s love child. It’s at the mention of James Cameron, a man notorious for not having a sense of humor about himself, that this bit has completely fallen apart, according to New York Magazine.

Mechanic, now both a producer of motion pictures and of this year’s Oscar telecast, was head of Twentieth Century Fox when Cameron’s Titanic famously went massively over budget and over schedule, so he’s well acquainted with Cameron’s sense of humor — or lack of it. “Let’s just say that Cameron isn’t known to be, shall we say, ‘self-deprecating,’” explained one insider familiar with the decision to cut the sketch.

Academy spokesperson Toni Thompson would only confirm that Baron Cohen was no longer presenting, but Baron Cohen’s spokesman, Matt Labov, tells Vulture that “I hate to use the term, because it’s so ubiquitous, but there were ‘creative differences.’ Nothing acrimonious, but both sides felt that since they couldn’t agree, [Cohen] might as well remain in London.” (Calls to Mechanic’s office were not returned at deadline.)

So in case you’re ranking celebrity senses of humor at home, you can now safely put Cameron below Eminem.

James Cameron was greeted by two fans at the Arlington Theater yesterday, each dressed as Na’Vi and claiming they weren’t from Pandora, but from one of the moons of Pandora. This prompted Cameron to say:

“I can’t say anything about the other moons and the Polyphemus system because that’s top secret because they are going to appear in the sequel.“

The quote appears in the video below:

Now that Avatar has shattered every record in the book and has become a global phenomena, the time has come for research and studies! Why is it people are feeling depressed and/or suicidal when leaving the theater? Actually, according to research about “Awe”, a movie like Avatar should find the majority of viewers feeling creatively juiced, socially connected and perhaps even a little spiritual.

Elicitors of awe include mountain ranges, cathedrals, powerful leaders, music, scientific theories, encounters with God, natural disasters, and James Cameron films. For me, Avatar induced awe in response to both the exhilarating fictional world but also the artistic and technical achievements I knew were required to create that world.

In a 2007 paper, Michelle Shiota, along with Keltner and Amanda Mossman, reported experimental findings on the effects of awe. In one study, people described recent experiences of either awe or happiness. Reliving an awe-inspiring event was more likely to make people to go outside for a hike after the experiment, or to do something creative like play an instrument or write. Further, subjects instructed to recall a recent encounter with beauty in nature said they felt the presence of something greater than themselves and felt connected with the world around them. Another group of subjects, after staring at a 25-foot Tyrannosaurus skeleton for one minute were more likely than people who stared at an empty hallway to use universal terms such as “a person” or “an inhabitant of the Earth” to describe themselves; they saw themselves as members of a larger group.

In regards to the sadness subjects reported in that study, the authors write, “It is not impossible that the discovery of the limits of the self during a self-transcendent emotional experience may produce some negative emotions.” Hence post-Avatar suicide-watch? If watching acrobatic cat people uplink their ponytails and fight giant exoskeletons in 3-D for two and a half hours doesn’t make you want to run outside and play or at least write some erotic Na’vi fan fic, I think you have bigger problems back here on Earth than just not having a tree house and a hot blue girlfriend.

Source

Surprisingly good feature about the creation of the world of Pandora for James Cameron’s juggernaut of a movie, Avatar. This is like having the Blu-Ray version months in advance, at least if you’re like and me consume “Making Of” documentaries.