Award season just won't be the same this year, and it's not just because there will be 10 movies up for Best Picture. Variety announced yesterday that new media reporter David Carr of The New York Times will no longer be covering the Hollywood gala beat, and his Carpetbagger blog will now be written by Melena Ryzik.

At first we were worried that this meant Carr was slowly being filtered out of The Times (or worse, already let go!) but he says he'll be keeping his "day job" for now. But he will miss covering the self-congratulatory festivals that he's been commenting on since 2005: "I love my fake friends...Penelope Cruz air-kissing you, even when she's not exactly sure who you are, has to have an effect on you."

If we had our say though, we'd hand that blog right over to Toby Young.