The cutthroat world of Academy Award campaigning hit an all-time low earlier today when Best Actor nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Christian Bale publicly revealed their suspicions of fellow Best Actor nominee and Oscar front-runner Matthew McConaughey in the murder of a missing Los Angeles prostitute. McConaughey believes his fellow nominees are working in collusion to dissuade Academy members from voting for him by spreading slanderous lies that he had something to do with the disappearance of 25-year-old Candy Anastasia who went missing Monday night.

“No one ever warned me Oscar politics would be this vicious, because up until last year, no one believed I’d ever be nominated,” McConaughey told Hollywood & Swine. “And I’m pretty sure my fellow nominees came up with the dead hooker plan from watching my new HBO mini-series ‘True Detective.’ ”

Sources within the Academy accuse DiCaprio of being the mastermind behind the smear campaign to rob his “Wolf of Wall Street” co-star McConaughey of the Best Actor Oscar many believe he deserves after losing 40 pounds and growing a moustache for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club.” According to one anonymous source, DiCaprio is actually paying the missing hooker to stay out-of-sight in an undisclosed motel somewhere in Hollywood until final Oscar ballots are cast later this month.

“I don’t know if McConaughey killed that missing hooker or not, that’s for the authorities to decide,” said Leonardo DiCaprio. “But I in good conscience cannot vote for Matthew for Best Actor until these horrible allegations are cleared up.”