It’s practically illegal to be a good boy these days. Messi, Anatomy of a Fall’s breakout dog who plays Snoop in the film, has been persecuted for having good vibes and virtually barred from attending the Oscars on March 10, where his film has been nominated for five Academy Awards. To be clear, no one said the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences excluded the border collie outright, but there might have been enough bullying to influence his decision to remain in France for the event. Much to the ire of dogless films vying for attention at the precursor to the Super Bowl of awards season, Messi stole voters’ hearts at the nominees luncheon last month. According to The Hollywood Reporter, multiple companies with nominated films whined to the Academy about his presence at the bash apparently giving Anatomy of a Fall a dog-shaped chess piece to wield during the height of voting season.
With all that negativity, it makes sense that Messi would choose to stay at home in Paris over making nice with his jealous haters. As for who will take the dog’s place at the ceremony itself, we don’t put it past host Jimmy Kimmel to produce a Messi dupe for a silly bit on Sunday. No one’s falling for another Jenny the Donkey scam.