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DiCaprio Honored With 'Russian Oscar' from Chelyabinsk Troupe

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio was recently snubbed by the official Oscars for a fourth year, but a theater in Russia's Ural Mountains wants to give him a consolatory cast-iron "Russian Oscar," local media said Thursday.

The Chamber Theater of Chelyabinsk, a city famous for its heavy industry and a meteorite that crashed down on it last year, has also accepted DiCaprio into its troupe in absentia, news site Hornews.ru reported.

The star of "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Titanic" and "Django Unchained" has even been offered a walk-on role of a pre-revolutionary Russian servant in "Captive Spirits," a play about symbolist poets of the early 20th century, theater spokesman Yury Sychev said.

And DiCaprio can get a lead role later on, even if he doesn't master Russian, Sychev was cited as saying.

As an honorary troupe member, DiCaprio is also entitled to visit performances free of charge and use the theater's brand in any of his advertising campaigns.

A ceremony to give the actor the "Russian Oscar," a 1.5-kilogram (3.3-pound) replica of the bronze Academy Award statuette, is scheduled for March 27, but organizers have said they are ready to ship the prize to the star, who has not yet publicly commented on the honors.

DiCaprio, 39, has had five Academy Award nominations over the past two decades, including one this year. But he has never won.

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