SHORT TAKES : Argentine Film Workers Protest

BUENOS AIRES — About 200 Argentine film industry workers, protesting against tax exemptions for foreign films, staged a noisy demonstration outside a theater where winners of two Hollywood Oscars were announced early today.

While U.S. actor Charlton Heston and Argentine actress Norma Aleandro read out the winners of the best documentary and best feature documentary categories, outside the Colon Theatre film workers handed out leaflets saying “Oscar pays no taxes.”

“Today television shows a black-tie Argentina to the world, hiding the reality of a devastated industry, with thousands of unemployed artists and technicians,” the leaflets said.

The official news agency Telam said federal police arrested two people who sought to sabotage the satellite transmission by trying to cut power cables outside the Colon Theatre.