None of Julia's Beeswax

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/14/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Julia Roberts, it has been reported, has had to give back her Oscar or else face a meltdown. Her wax effigy, that is. This week, reports the Associated Press, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences dispatched a type of cease-and-desist letter to the Hollywood Wax Museum on Hollywood Blvd., asking that it remove a replica of an Oscar statue from its wax figure of Roberts. Museum spokesperson John Blanchette said the fake Oscar came from a souvenir shop next door and was placed in the fake Julia's hands two days before her ultimate March 25 win for "Erin Brockovich." "The statuette is our copyrighted property, and it is not something available for use in any context that somebody else might think to use it in," was the message from AMPAS. The museum removed the phony Oscar. "We have complied," Blanchette said, "but we felt bullied, and the wax figure isn't happy either."