Oh no! Peter Gabriel has dropped out of the Oscars show because they only want to let him sing 65 seconds of his world-changing, Oscar-nominated song, Down to Earth, from WALL-E.
"I don't feel that is sufficient time to do the song justice, and I have decided to withdraw from performing," Gabriel said in his letter to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Geez - Bruce Springsteen can distill the experience of an entire three-hour concert into 12 minutes at the Super Bowl - but Gabriel can't sing an excerpt from a song?
I'm sure that, in Gabriel's mind, he didn't want to rob his fans of the opportunity to see him perform the ditty they accidentally may have walked out on while it was playing over the closing credits of the film.
But Gabriel's little snit actually may serve a useful purpose. Could this be the inroad needed to get rid of the ridiculous performances of best-song nominees altogether in the Oscar telecast?
Let's hope so.
Everybody talks about how long and boring the Oscar show always is - but nobody does anything about it. And the answer is always right there in front of them: Eliminate all musical performances of any sort from the show.
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