Man pleads not guilty in alleged Oscar theft

A man accused of stealing Frances McDormand's Oscar from her table at the Governors Ball following Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony pleaded not guilty Wednesday on a felony charge of grand theft.

Terry Bryant, 47, was appeared in a Downtown L.A courtroom. He was released, but faces up to three years behind bars if convicted.

Bryant was arrested Sunday night for allegedly lifting McDormand's Oscar statuette, which she won for her work in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.'' Police said Bryant had a ticket to the Governors Ball at the Hollywood & Highland complex.

Bryant took a video of himself holding the Oscar at the party and posted it online. It shows him holding the statuette and saying, "Look at it, baby. My team got this tonight. This is mine. We got it tonight, baby.''

A photographer who works for celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck subsequently took a photo of Bryant holding the Oscar while apparently making his way toward the exit and helped security detain him until police arrived, according to reports from the scene.

Bryant refers to himself online as an entertainment journalist and a film and music producer. His social media accounts also include photos of him at shows including the Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. He also has a minor criminal past in Oregon, with arrests from 1999 to 2002 for criminal mischief and theft, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The celebrity news website TMZ.com reported that McDormand has no interest in seeing Bryant prosecuted, but the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which technically owns the statuette and is listed on the police report as the victim of the theft, wants the book thrown at him.

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