Why Did the Oscars Do That to Poor Amy Adams?

Did Amy Adams insult Gil Cates’s mother or something? We don’t know how it was that she sang one of the nominated songs from Enchanted, while Kristin Chenoweth sang another in her place, but apparently Adams pissed off Oscar producer Cates something fierce.

Chenoweth, who could sell a song in her sleep, got the help of a cast of dozens of colorfully costumed dancers for her song, “That’s How You Know.� Meanwhile, the charming Adams was placed all alone on a bare stage in a single spotlight for her number. We would understand that, maybe, if the song was a torchy ballad. But the song was the light, fluffy “Happy Working Song,� which is tolerable in the film only because its performance is accompanied by the sight gag of rats, pigeons, and cockroaches cleaning an apartment. What sadistic producer heard “Happy Working Song� and thought, Let’s put Amy Adams onstage all by herself, but let’s give Kristin Chenoweth a lot of help for her number? Adams didn’t do terribly, but she’s no Broadway star, and we felt kind of awful for her.