E-mail messages obtained by NewsBusters refute claims that multi-millionaire filmmaker James Cameron cancelled a debate with prominent global warming skeptics because they weren't as famous as he is.

As NewsBusters reported Monday, a debate had been scheduled and placed on the program for last weekend's AREDay summit in Aspen, Colorado, featuring internet publisher Andrew Breitbart, Sen. James Inhofe's (R-Okla.) former communications director Marc Morano, and documentarian Ann McElhinney. 

Within the past 36 hours, event organizers have absurdly claimed that since Cameron wanted to match wits with either Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or Inhofe, he decided to pull out of the debate when this didn't happen.

E-mail messages between the prospective participants and Cameron's representative paint an entirely different picture. 

To begin our story, Richard Greene, the man that negotiated the particulars with the skeptics, sent the following regrets to the prospective participants some time Saturday (h/t Big Hollywood):