Mel Gibson Refuses to Play the Oscar Marketing Game

A sparse article has popped up on Contactmusic.com claiming that Gibson has told his marketing staff at Icon to forgo marketing 'Passion of the Christ' because he wants it to win solely on its artistic merits:

The actor/director finds the Hollywood trend of spending millions promoting Oscar hopefuls ridiculous - and he has told his own marketing people not to get involved.

He says, "I think films should be considered on their artistic merits and that's all.

"It's kind of like a presidential campaign or something and it's just not that important."

Given the crafty marketing behind 'Passion' last year, one has to at least suspect the possibility of this being a clever "anti-marketing" marketing campaign aimed at the Academy.

Mel Gibson: Oscar Should Go to the Best Film, Not the Best marketing.