Los Angeles - Motorola announced on Friday that it will debut its new MOTORIZR Z3 mobile phone at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, when it presents each of the top 25 nominees in the directing and four acting categories with the phone. The handsets will be housed in custom made boxes, and will come pre-loaded with 10 new songs from emerging artists.

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Editor's note: In response to the above article, the following was submitted to us by the legal department at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

The Academy wishes to point out that Motorola will not in fact be, "...debuting its not-yet-available Motorizr Z3 at the 79th Annual Academy Awards." Motorola is neither an official Academy sponsor nor provider, nor will a nominee even be allowed to carry this type of phone at the Academy Awards (guests are not allowed to bring cameras, including phones with a camera feature). Additionally, it should be made clear that the Academy does not give, and has never given, gift baskets to its nominees. We have in the past given gift baskets to our award presenters, but you may or may not have heard that this practice has recently been discontinued (see http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2006/06.08.17.html)

Scott Miller
Assistant General Counsel
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences