Pete Hammond has sent in some additional views on the Syriana switcheroo: “When I interviewed Gaghan for his WGA nomination screening the weekend before last I asked him if Syriana was basically an original and he admitted that only about a paragraph of the actual book is in the movie, but after spending so much time with Bob Baer in preparing the film he felt the inspiration he got from him is throughout the film. But an adaptation of a book? Never. On the cover of Bob Baer’s “See No Evil,” the book tie-in for Syriana, the copy on the cover says, “The True Story that SUGGESTED the new motion picture Syriana. It shows the Academy writers branch is actually pretty sharp. They just should have told somebody sooner so the situation wasn’t confused. Had Gaghan ever received his ballot (it was lost and just replaced now) he probably would have voted for himself in the adaptation category without knowing it would be a wasted vote.”