Needless to say — MAJOR (or at least “POSSIBLE”) SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.

There’s no way yet to confirm the authenticity of the document, but several Twitterers, mainly Indian, have linked to the following letter revealing the winners of this year’s Academy Awards — the Oscars that aren’t due to be handed out until Sunday evening.

Here’s the link — again, we can’t confirm the authenticity, but I didn’t want to post the image here directly, in case you didn’t want to actually see it.

The letter purports to be from Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which administers the Oscars.

If this is real, the world is about to go totally nuts.

This will cripple the press-release embargo system, and (obviously) pretty much kill the betting parlors, network ratings (sorry, ABC), and about any office pool you’ve been illegally participating in.

On the other hand, major news outlets are reporting that this list is a complete and utter fake of the largest order, and quote an Academy spokesperson saying the posted list is “a complete fraud.”

Guess we’ll wait and see — but from a marketing perspective, does this change anything for the companies and brands connected to Sunday’s telecast? According to published reports, ABC has already cut the price for a 30-second spot from last year’s $1.7 million to $1.4 million, and has reportedly lost several of last year’s advertisers, leading to a projection of a 21% drop in revenue compared to last year’s show. Much of that is a factor of the recession, of course — but a lack of suspense can’t possible be helpful. (The one plus for the network is that the Academy allowed it to accept movie ads — previously banned from the Oscar telecast.)

If the ratings don’t live up to expectations, will ABC have to offer makegoods to advertisers?

And will the prospect of a tawdry red carpet session studded with nominees being asked if they’ve seen “The List” make that pre-show hour the only real ratings winner?

Here’s an even better question:

If you were one of the advertisers ponying up, and that list turns out to have been real, would you feel tainted by the stigma of spoiled suspense? Would it matter?

j.