Ad rocks Oscar’s boat

With less than a week to go to the Academy Awards, an Oscar advertisement promoting “House of Sand and Fog” is being denounced for breaching campaign protocol by implicitly asking people to vote against “Cold Mountain” costar Renee Zellweger.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday that it is considering a number of penalties against DreamWorks, which released “House of Sand and Fog” and purchased the advertisement in last Friday’s trade newspaper Daily Variety. The academy’s penalties could include steps as minor as canceling some of DreamWorks’ Oscar-night tickets to as major as disqualifying one of the studio’s films from awards eligibility.

The one-page DreamWorks advertisement was taken out to promote Iranian-born Shohreh Aghdashloo, nominated for best supporting actress for her performance opposite Ben Kingsley as his character’s wife, Nadi, in “House of Sand and Fog.” But unlike other Oscar ads, the ad specifically and repeatedly features mentions of Aghdashloo’s main rival for the award, “Cold Mountain” costar Zellweger.

The DreamWorks advertisement includes excerpts from four newspaper, magazine and television reports that say that Zellweger “will win” but that Aghdashloo “should win.” Every excerpt but one includes Zellweger’s name.

“It’s certainly a new and unwelcome step downward in campaigning,” said Bruce Davis, the academy’s executive director, who called it “an attack ad.” He said he had spoken with several Oscar voters over the weekend who reacted to the ad “with varying degrees of surprise and amazement.”

DreamWorks apologized for the advertisement, saying it was never intended as a criticism of either Zellweger or her film. “The ad was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened,” said studio co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. “In a year in which everyone has pledged to take a higher road, we made a very bad and ill-advised mistake.”

The ad and its condemnation will probably have an insignificant effect on Oscar voting and on Aghdashloo’s prospects, as most academy members already have submitted their ballots. Polling closes today at 5 p.m. The Oscars will be broadcast on ABC this Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

As soon as the ad ran, Brandt Joel, one of Zellweger’s representatives at the Creative Artists Agency, called both DreamWorks and the academy to complain. “Clearly, they were upset, and said, ‘Is this fair?’ ” Davis said of Joel’s call.

The advertisement falls into a gray area that is not expressly forbidden but could be construed as violating the spirit of the academy’s new regulations encouraging “a high degree of fairness and dignity” during the awards season. The “House of Sand and Fog” plug also appears to cross a line by referring to a rival nominee by name. “That certainly hasn’t happened in the most recent quarter-century,” Davis said.

Over the past several years, the typically bare-knuckle Oscar campaigns have become especially costly and bloody. From off-the-record gossip attacking some nominees to swank dinner parties promoting others, studios and their awards consultants have used nearly every tactic imaginable to secure both Academy Award nominations and wins.

The academy in July adopted new rules in the hopes these campaigns would turn more diplomatic. “It is the academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner,” the academy says in its new campaign regulations. “Any campaign activity determined ... to work in opposition to that goal, whether or not anticipated by these regulations, will be subject to penalties.”

Davis says that some awards promoters can and have interpreted the regulations as loosely as is expedient. “Discussing concepts like fair play and decorum with certain marketing people is like discussing salad with your cat,” Davis said. He said the timing and the nature of a penalty against DreamWorks, if in fact there were one, has yet to be determined.

The academy has not shied away from harsh penalties in other cases, and recently expelled a member, veteran actor Carmine Caridi, for allowing his Academy Awards videocassettes to be copied illegally.

Zellweger, who has been nominated for three consecutive Oscars, is aware of the ad and “disappointed” by it, a spokeswoman said. In “Cold Mountain,” she plays Ruby Thewes, a performance for which Zellweger has won an array of awards, from the Golden Globe to the Screen Actors Guild award.

The flap places DreamWorks in an especially awkward position as Zellweger performs one of the lead voices in the studio’s animated film “Shark Tale,” due in October.

“We can be accused of stupidity, but not maliciousness,” DreamWorks marketing head Terry Press said. “It’s an ad promoting Shohreh. We didn’t take out an ad saying, ‘Don’t vote for Renee Zellweger.’ If we’re in business with Renee Zellweger, why would we do this?”

Added Michael London, who produced “House of Sand and Fog”: “With all the underhanded subterfuge that has goes on in awards campaigning, it’s ironic that the academy is singling out something that is on the record and public.”

Miramax, which released “Cold Mountain” and has feuded with DreamWorks in past Oscar races, declined to comment.