A ‘Babel’ breakdown

Hard feelings have intensified between “Babel” Oscar nominees director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, whose partnership yielded a highly praised trilogy of movies about the connections among diverse people and situations. They had already accused each other of trying to steal the spotlight. Now Inarritu and other “Babel” collaborators, including actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Adriana Barraza and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, have signed a letter criticizing Arriaga.

“It’s a shame that in your unjustified obsession to claim sole responsibility for the film, you seem not to recognize that movies are an art of deep collaboration,” said the letter, published in the latest edition of Mexico’s Chilanga magazine. In a radio interview, Arriaga shot back that Inarritu was stealing credit for “Babel” by describing himself as the movie’s creator.

Both Inarritu and Arriaga were nominated for Academy Awards for “Babel,” which was also up for best picture, but Santaolalla was the only winner among the film’s seven nominees, taking home his second straight statuette for best original score.