LOS ANGELES - Actor Sacha Baron Cohen and Canadian director Jason Reitman have been invited to join Hollywood's most exclusive club - the group that decides the winners of the Academy Awards.
They were among 105 actors, filmmakers, executives and others in the movie business who were asked to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Cohen had a screenplay nomination for "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
Reitman was a best-director nominee for last year's "Juno."
Diablo Cody, who won the original-screenplay Oscar for "Juno," was also on the list of invitees released Monday.
Others were Marion Cotillard, who won the best-actress Oscar in February for "La Vie En Rose," and Ruby Dee, a supporting-actress nominee for last year's "American Gangster."
Also on the list: actors Jet Li, Josh Brolin, Allison Janney and Ray Winstone; directors Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity"), Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry") and Gore Verbinski ("The Pirates of the Caribbean" movies); writers Judd Apatow ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin"), Jeff Nathanson ("Catch Me If You Can") and Tamara Jenkins ("The Savages"); and animators Ash Brannon ("Surf's Up") and David Silverman ("The Simpsons Movie").
The academy has just under 6,000 voting members.
