IntegrityError during scripted creation of superuser

edit

I am trying to create a superuser automatically with the following code:

from django.core.management import setup_environ
import settings
setup_environ(settings)

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

u = User(username='<USER>')
u.set_password('<PASSWORD>')
u.is_superuser = True
u.is_staff = True
u.save()

However, I get this IntegrityError which I believe is connected to addition of the User.status field:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mkadmin.py", line 12, in <module>
    u.save()
  File "/var/www/askbot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 546, in save
    force_update=force_update, update_fields=update_fields)
...
  File "/var/www/askbot/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/postgresql_psycopg2/base.py", line 54, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(query, args)
django.db.utils.IntegrityError: null value in column "status" violates not-null constraint

I've tried adding u.status="a" but this doesn't help. The database query still doesn't include the status column. Any ideas how this can be done?