Well I think we all saw this one coming... I'm just surprised they took so long to make it official. Following up on the
steps taken earlier this week to cut down on bloated acceptance speeches, word is beginning to leak out that Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, the executive producers of this year's Oscar broadcast, have decided to nix the performances for Best Original Song altogether. Instead they will simply provide a short sample of each song along with some accompanying footage from the film.
You may recall that last year Peter Gabriel
opted not to perform at the Oscars in protest of their decision to go with a combined medley of the nominated songs. After that, the
criteria for Best Original Song was also changed for this year in order to potentially reduce the number of nominees. Now it seems that this process has been taken to its logical conclusion, squeezing the musical performances out the picture entirely.
With an extra five nominees up for Best Picture this year, they have to make up the time somewhere, and without any big name artists scheduled to perform, this cut makes the most sense for ratings. But is this an acceptable change, or is it a slap in the face of tradition? Are you disappointed that we won't get live performances for songs from
Crazy Heart,
Nine,
Paris 36 and
The Princess and The Frog?
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