'The Cove' Oscar Speech Gets Cut Off For Activist Message (VIDEO)

Things got a little too heavy for the Academy during "The Cove" team's speech for Best Documentary. When the film's star, Ric O'Barry, held up a sign with an activist statement on it, the Academy panicked, abruptly cuing the music and cutting away right as the film's director, Louie Psihoyos, was about to make his speech.

The sign that scared the Academy said "Text Dolphin to 44144." What exactly was so offensive about it?

According to TakePart, sending the text will sign you up to get messages about how to help end the dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan.

WATCH the awkward Oscar moment:

Quick Poll

What do you think of The Cove's speech getting cut off?

Not cool!

The Oscars aren't a place for activist statements.

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Comments

[AMuseMeant4U]

12:16 PM on 03/12/2010

Mixed emotions. First of all, I adore all creatures on the planet and don't want to detract from "The Cove", but I think the Cowcentration Camps in California (and other parts of the country) are some of the most cruel, inhumane and horrific places on the planet. But nobody's up in arms about cows, holding up banners or turning it into a reality show. Poor cows. They're just the chubby farm girls that nobody really wants to hear about, while the Paris Hiltons (whales and dolphins) get all the media attention.

[AMuseMeant4U]

12:05 PM on 03/12/2010

Why does the "Quick Poll" above give only two options to vote on? You can either vote that it's "Not Cool!" or that the Oscars "aren't the place". Uh.... excuse me! How about the option to vote FOR activist statements? Not that I would bother voting anyway. Just curious.

[rayzrface714]

02:40 PM on 03/11/2010

At least he was not a streaker.Have you ever observed Dolphins? I have a problem with the idea that i might be eating Flipper!I'll choke a squid down but not Flipper.Besides we are running out of tuna not to mention a lot of other species. The Oscars are almost as bad as the Olympics.Hypocritical,2 faced and largely self-serving to the point of propaganda. Where was Farrah Fawcett? Was North Korea on the board of censors for this misbegotten production? I tell you i am ashamed that Hollyweed came up with this FARCE! Goodbye and please try to have a good day?

[lj2010]

04:23 AM on 03/11/2010

The reason why they were cut off was because you were only allowed 40 seconds and the producer took up all the time thanking the other producers.

[Christopher Carr]

10:51 AM on 03/10/2010

The Cove beat out less frivolous documentaries about Burma, food safety, Daniel Ellsberg, and Central American children who seek better lives in the United States respectively. Not to sound callous, but who cares about dolphins? Not that the Best Documentary Academy Award is or should be about engineering social change or inspiring political action, but the fact that the Cove won shows just how full-of-garbage and self-indulgent the environmental movement has become: http://www.theinductive.com/culture/2010/1/21/the-cove-and-the-self-righteousness-of-activists.html

[migsly]

02:59 PM on 03/10/2010

Not to sound callous but who cares about Burma, Daniel Ellsberg and more illegal immigrants?
As far as food safety, the meat of the dolphins the Japanese are catching is contaminated with mercury.

[Christopher Carr]

12:22 PM on 03/22/2010

people who value human lives more than those of stupid fish

[Kolton White]

05:31 PM on 03/10/2010

you make me sick! how would you like it if you were being herded into a place by pain, being stabbed to death and knowing that your family and friends would go through the same thing. and also nobody caring about it like jerks like you! then bein sold so the jerks can eat you!!! you wouldnt like it very much would you!

[Christopher Carr]

12:24 PM on 03/22/2010

I hate when pain herds me places. Go Japan!

[hereticalamerican]

10:15 AM on 03/10/2010

CENSORSHIP - Alive and well in these Corporate States of America

[steven11]

12:27 PM on 03/09/2010

Whale Meat served at Sushi Restaurant in Santa Monica, CA

http://www.cnbc.com/id/35777865/

Perhaps the filmmakers should look in their own backyard! LOL!

[SouPro]

09:10 AM on 03/09/2010

I could understand protesting pelagic whaling as Japan has almost no cultural practice of it until the early 20th Century, but this form of crude whaling dates back for centuries in Japan. It's an ineffective campaign as there would have to be almost unanimous consent in Japan to end the practice as it is embedded deep within their bureaucracy. As long as whaling means something to the Japanese identity it will never end.

[HarrietteTheSpy]

08:51 AM on 03/10/2010

It's about dolphins. And it's shocking. You can find the movie online.

[SouPro]

10:04 AM on 03/10/2010

...which is also managed by their Ministry of Ag. Forest and Fisheries. The technique the village uses is crude but effective for small scale harvesting and has been practiced in that area for hundreds of years. It may have shocked Hollywood and those who know nothing of Japanese cetacean fisheries (if you'd prefer that instead of whaling), but the only effect this will have is shocking it's viewers instead of making a mass-social change in Japan. It's cute politics, but it won't lead to any good policy.

[StrayTalk]

08:54 AM on 03/09/2010

For everyone reading and posting on here, please try and see the movie if you haven't already. It's highly entertaining and informative. The man with the sign is Ric O'Barry. He's had a lifetime of working with and FOR dolphins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_O'Barry The tech folks who run the Oscars were probably ORDERED to cut away at any sign of activism. In this case, it was a poor decision on their part since the whole point of the film is exposing the plight of these dolphins through high tech activism.
Even if you think dolphin is common food in Japan(It's not)--mercury poisoning is not good for anyone!
See the Cove.

[PolySci]

08:33 AM on 03/09/2010

Cowards

[MalakAlHaq]

07:46 AM on 03/09/2010

Just another reason not to watch anything from Hollywood.

[volakis]

12:13 PM on 03/09/2010

That's a really myopic response!!!

[PlayTOE]

07:16 AM on 03/09/2010

"The Cove" Best Documentary is an activist piece...
It is reasonable that the people involved are animal rights inclined, and Dolphin sympathizers who are trying to bring the issue to our attention.

~ an activist message ~
That was the entire point.

[PaticaDeGato]

07:12 AM on 03/09/2010

I once knew this guy who lived with a cat. One occasion I was visiting him, he told me that the cat was nothing but property, no better than a pencil or a shoe, at which point I told him that I would be glad to buy him a new, younger cat if he would let me microwave his current piece of feline property. Once he saw me grab the cat and head out for the kitchen, he ran after me, rescued his pet, and dropped the "property" idiocy once and for all (at least in my presence).

There's this thing called empathy: I feel far more empathy for highly intelligent creatures like dolphins and whales (who probably feel and suffer in a way similar to humans) than to a dumb creature like a cow or a chicken.

Grow up.

[PaticaDeGato]

07:24 AM on 03/09/2010

Ooops! I posted this again and in the wrong place. My bad.

[Musiker]

07:02 AM on 03/09/2010

That was hands-down the lamest moment of the entire broadcast. Shame on the network and the show producers!!! SHAME!

[blingladen]

05:28 AM on 03/09/2010

Tank-bred tuna