Musician Peter Gabriel has decided to drop out of performing at Feb. 22nd's Academy Awards telecast due to a dispute over performance time. Gabriel thought he was performing his song "Down To Earth" from WALL-E in its entirety, but was informed by the Academy that he would only get 60 seconds. Per Variety:
[Gabriel] does not believe the song will work in such a truncated form.
"It's a bit unfortunate," he said in a video on his website. "The songwriters are a very small part of the filmmaking process but we still work bloody hard and deserve (a bigger part in the ceremony)."
Calling himself "an old fart" who can afford to "make a little protest," Gabriel's hope is that the Oscarcast producers will reconsider the move next year and reinstate full performances of songs.
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.