Director PETER JACKSON is outraged NAOMI WATTS failed to bag an Oscar nomination for her performance in his KING KONG remake, because she had to work alongside an invisible co-star.

Watts only had the giant ape in her imagination when she played heroine ANN DARROW, while the Academy Awards nominees for last month's (MAR06) ceremony - REESE WITHERSPOON, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, CHARLIZE THERON, FELICITY HUFFMAN and DAME JUDI DENCH - acted in less challenging scenarios.

Oscar-winner Jackson says, "Naomi's performance was superb. She is not acting with a huge, 25-foot-tall ape. She is creating so much of that in her mind."Naomi should have been nominated. I thought it was a shame. It was a year of independent films. It was a very strange year for the Oscars." (ZJS/WNTEX/SC)