Deadline says
SHOCKER! Brett Ratner Out As Oscar Producer
Academy’s Statement On Brett Ratner’s Resignation
Brett Ratner has issued a letter to the entertainment industry explaining why he has resigned as producer of the Academy Awards following a litany of spectacularly dumb and insensitive statements made while promoting his new film Tower Heist. I’m told that despite a growing groundswell of Academy members calling for Ratner’s head, the Academy likely would have grudgingly hung in there with Ratner as producer. He made it easy for them by bowing out. Here is his statement:
So close to producing and yet so far.