One last Oscar note:

Some of you may be wondering why Jorge Drexler sang a few verses from "Al Otro Lado del Rio" when accepting his Oscar for Best Original Song. It turns out that this sweet little moment was actually a deliciously subtle act of revenge. Drexler, a Uruguayan pop star who wrote the song's music and lyrics and performs it in The Motorcycle Diaries, would have been the obvious choice to sing it during the Oscar telecast, but was snubbed in favor of Antonio Banderas, over the protests of everyone involved. (According to the show's producers, Drexler didn't have enough starpower to rate a spot on the show.) Luckily, Drexler won, which means that the Academy and the entire world were treated to the most beautiful and melodious fuck you in the history of television.

Slate has some of the details, but the best coverage is on the front page of Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. The whole story was huge news in Uruguay, which apparently is a nation just starving for attention:

"We got excited when they mentioned the word 'Uruguay' on The Simpsons," says Daniel Drexler, Jorge's brother, "even though they pronounced it 'you are gay' and made a joke out of it."

Oh, and on Tuesday, Uruguay also became the first Latin American country to inaugurate a Socialist president. In most of the country, that story appeared on page two.