And the best Oscar goes. Just goes.

The people who arrange the Oscars have come up with a startling idea: They're not going to give a prize for the best song any more, unless there's a pretty good song.

This does raise some problems, though, surely - if they do decide to give a prize one year because there is a good song, how do they do a shortlist? Will they have to grudgingly pretend songs that would normally be ignored are good enough to pretend it's a real competition? Or will they just give it the prize without any hoo-hah?

And since the title of the category is comparative, isn't it a bit of a problem to say there's no best song in a particular year? It might be philosophical, but even if every song on every film soundtrack was written by Fred Durst and performed by Coldplay, one of them still has to be better than the others - a best song, even if it's not very good.

Anyway, it's all part of a new drive to try and get rid of a lot of the flab in awards ceremonies. Like axing polka from the Grammys. And look where that got people.

[via @hjasnoch]