Bruce Broughton has fired back at the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences after his Oscar nomination was rescinded.
The songwriter called the Academy "stupid" and "hypocritical" in an open letter that was written to the origination. He stated that not only were his tactics not violating the policies of the Academy but that current president Cheryl Boone Isaacs had conflicts of interest from her work as a film marketing executive on past Oscar contenders. "Just looked at the Academy release of the rescinding of the nomination and came upon this line in the penultimate paragraph: 'Members were asked to watch the clips and then vote in the order of their preference for not more than five nominees in the category.' This isn't at all accurate," wrote Isaacs.
"What the letter that Charlie Fox sent to accompany the DVD actually said was: 'When making your voting selections, simply select up to five songs in order of your preference. We hope that you will watch (italics mine) the enclosed DVD and use it to better inform your voting decision.' Based upon that italicized phrase, I decided to send some emails.
"Furthermore, if, as you quote the Academy's rules, 'it is the Academy's goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner,' and my 70 or so emails constitutes a breach of that standard, why could the current Academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, consult on Academy Award nominated projects like 'The Artist, 'The King's Speech' and others with a history as an Academy governor that far exceeds mine and at the same time produce the Governors' Ball without having that look like a breach of the same standard?"
The letter came a day after the Academy issued a statement saying that "Broughton sent an email to at least 70 of his fellow Music Branch members-nearly one-third of the branch's 240 members. When he identified the song as track #57 as one he had composed, and asked voting branch members to listen to it, he took advantage of information that few other potential nominees are privy to."
The controversy over the song "Alone Yet Not Alone" began when the Oscars announced that the song was nominated. The song came from a film of the same title that not many had heard of. As a result many of the songwriters not nominated were offended and an investigation began. The Academy announced the exclusion of the song on Jan 30.
The Oscars are slated to be held on March 2 with only four songs competing in the best song category.