Oscars says no to YouTube and “Our Town”

I was hoping by now to have a video clip of James Taylor and Randy Newman performing their Oscar-nominated song, “Our Town,” from the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars,” at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Variety reports that the Academy has banned YouTube from allowing any video clips from the Oscars telecast because it wants to “manage the value of our telecast and our brand.”

So the performance “Our Town” — and its remarkably moving and compact story of many Route 66 towns that were bypassed by the interstate — will remain unavailable for those who missed the telecast.

There is no chance the show will be rebroadcast. Nor does the Oscars offer its annual awards event on DVD. So I’m not sure what it’s trying to protect. This action against YouTube certainly does no promotional favors for the “Cars” soundtrack, or Route 66, for that matter.

But in the meantime, you can hear the original “Our Town” here:

You can also view the scene in which “Our Town” was featured:

And if the Oscars’ performance eventually shows up somewhere, we’ll let you know about it. And if you have an Mp4 or other format of the performance, shoot me an e-mail to let me know.

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