Sigourney Weaver has launched a blistering attack on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, saying James Cameron didn’t win the Oscar for Best Director because he “didn’t have breasts.”
Outspoken “Avatar” star Weaver said she believed Cameron — who lost out to his ex-wife, “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow — didn’t win because the academy wanted to make history by naming its first ever female Best Director.
“Jim didn’t have breasts, and I think that was the reason,” Weaver told Brazilian news site Folha Online over the weekend. “He should have taken home that Oscar.”
In a stunning rebuke hinting at frustration in the “Avatar” camp — who applauded gracefully when “The Hurt Locker” also took the Best Picture Oscar — Weaver added, “In the past, ‘Avatar’ would have won because they [Oscar voters] loved to hand out awards to big productions, like ‘Ben-Hur.’ Today it’s fashionable to give the Oscar to a small movie that nobody saw.”
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“Avatar” has grossed $743.7 million in the United States and $2.7 billion worldwide, while “The Hurt Locker” has taken $16 million in the US and just more than $40 million worldwide — numbers that make it the least popular Best Picture winner of all time, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
Weaver made her comments as she and Cameron promoted “Avatar” in Brazil and protested against the proposed Belo Monte dam in the Amazon — the world’s third-largest hydroelectric project — which they claim will destroy the jungle and displace indigenous tribes. Cameron also wrote a letter to Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who’s insisting the project will go forward and has refused to meet with him.
Reps for Weaver and Cameron didn’t get back to us. The Academy and “Hurt Locker” producers Summit Entertainment had no comment.