Voicing his displeasure



Victory is sweet for Jorge Drexler!
[Steve Granitz/WireImage.com ]
Entertainment editor Claire Kilgour gets the inside scoop on hot celebrity gossip, scandals and styles.    Email Claire


Winning the Oscar for best original song on Sunday night was both a musical and a moral victory for Uruguayan composer/singer Jorge Drexler.

In yesterday's Dish I mentioned that Drexler made the "Acceptance speech I didn't understand, but liked anyway" when he sang a few bars of "Al Otro Lado del Rio" from The Motorcycle Diaries at the podium, but what I didn't know then -- but do know now thanks to a reader with insider info -- is that his spontaneous "speech" was really sweet revenge.

Turns out, Drexler's moment at the mic was actually a melodic protest against his substitution by Antonio Banderas. It was as if he was saving his own song from Banderas' tone-deaf performance.

The Spanish-language press has been all aflutter this past week over Drexler getting dissed by Oscar producer Gil Cates. Apparently Drexler wasn't "sufficiently famous" to sing his own song during the show so the Academy decided unilaterally to have Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana, who U.S. audiences identify as "Latin," perform the song.

Fair enough. After all, who north of Uruguay had ever heard of Jorge Drexler?

However, when Drexler proposed a better-known Brazilian, Caetano Veloso, his plan was also rejected. "They offered me Enrique Iglesias," he told the Argentinean daily Clarín.

Drexler even considered giving the song to Beyonce (although considering the way she flubbed her way through the French-language song from Les Choristes, it's lucky she didn't get a chance to screw up Spanish too).

Adding insult to injury, Cates reportedly neglected to even return Drexler's calls.

According to Slate.com, director Walter Salles issued a press release saying the decision to allow Banderas to perform was "not only ethically, but aesthetically unacceptable."

Talk about foresight. To call Banderas' performance "aesthetically unacceptable" is an understatement.

The stage snub also infuriated Motorcycle Diaries star Gael Garcia Bernal, who had been scheduled to introduce the performance of "Al Otro Lado del Rio," but instead boycotted the ceremony entirely.

And when a heartthrob like Bernal fails to show up we all suffer for it.