REPORT: PRIVATE EYE BROUGHT DOWN ACADEMY NOMINATED SONG

Cue the eerie music as the plot thickens in the case of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences against “Alone Yet Not Alone,” whose Oscar nomination was yanked when it was discovered that the co-writer of the song, Bruce Broughton, had written 70 emails to members of the Academy’s music division asking them to listen to the song before they voted. (It would have been unlikely that they could have heard it in a theater; the little Christian movie for which it had been written, also called Alone Yet Not Alone, had earned just $134,000 in theaters during its initial run. So how did the Academy learn about those emails? Well, according to today’s (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times, another “disgruntled non-nominee” hired a private detective to find out how Broughton’s song was nominated and his wasn’t. The decision to rescind the nomination has infuriated many Academy members, the Times indicated, who have noted that big studios often spend million to promote their films, including their songs. The difference, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has replied, is that Broughton is a former governor and current member of the music branch’s executive committee, not merely a studio publicist. The battle goes on.