Disgruntled director Godard to skip Oscar honor

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard will not travel to the U.S. to accept an honorary Oscar, according to his wife.

Reached in Switzerland by a reporter for The Australian newspaper, Anne-Marie Mieville cited the 79-year-old director's age as reason for his not wanting to travel to Los Angeles.

But she also made clear that he had issues with the fact that the honorary Oscar was no longer part of the Oscar telecast.

"He just told me, it's not the Oscars,'" Mieville said. "At first he thought it was going to be part of the same ceremony, then he realized it was a separate thing in November."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last year relegated the honorary Oscar handout to a dinner in November to free up more time during the subsequent main ceremony.

When the academy announced Godard would receive the honor last month, executive director Bruce Davis told The Hollywood Reporter that officials had not actually communicated with him nor knew whether he would attend. Godard's silence sparked speculation he would spurn the honor given the auteur's long-avowed distaste for Hollywood.

But Mieville said Godard will respond to the Academy's letter notifying him of his honor, and raised the possibility that someone from Godard's production team would accept the award instead of him.

But if the Academy was hoping to be left with warm and fuzzy feelings, Mieville probably dashed those hopes when she added, "Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?"