(Feb. 13) - Peter Gabriel's minute in the Oscars spotlight will lack one important element: Peter Gabriel.
The Academy Award-nominated singer won't perform at the Feb. 22 ceremony to protest an apparently revamped presentation of best original song contenders. Gabriel says in a video on his Web site that he objects to the songs being shortened to 65 seconds apiece and made part of a medley.
"It's a bit unfortunate because the songwriters, even though they're a small part of the whole filmmaking process, we still work bloody hard and deserve a place in the ceremony as well,"the 59-year-old singer said.
"I'm an old fart, and it's not gonna do me any harm to make a little protest," he added. "But for some of the other artists, it's not so easy."
Gabriel is nominated alongside Thomas Newman for "Down To Earth" from "WALL-E."
The British musician says he'll still attend the Oscars, but is hoping a gospel choir will stand in for him onstage.
Organizers have warned that this year's ceremony will be full of new twists, including the way categories are presented. The academy did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

I totally agree with Gabriel, why a nominee would get less time than a presenter is frakked up.

How lame that they wont find time for complete song performances when the show will probably run close to 4 hours long.

I'm glad Peter stood up and said "fuck that!"

Timmy84 said:

Exactly this goes right up there with the year that Phil Collins was nominated for "Against all odds" and they had an actress sing the song for him and yet still invited him to the show? it was easily the worst thing ever, only rivalled by the "Song of the Year" going to "Dance with my Father" written by Luther Vandross and Richard Marx, at the time Luther was very ill, so it would seem OBVIOUS to have Richard Marx sing the song right?? i mean he wrote the god damn thing for his father and for luthers, and its not like Richard hasnt had hits of his own or written them (40 top 40singles, and 13 number ones) for others. But what SLAP IN THE FACE did they do, they had Richard play the piano while Celine Dion butchered the song.