In this morning's roundup of Oscar news 'n' notes from around the web, youth is served on the Oscar telecast … which has seen weirder choices.
The consensus on the new Oscar hosts? They're young. "And now for something completely different … youth," says Gregory Ellwood, who loves the booking. James Franco is 32, Anne Hathaway is 28 (put 'em together and they're younger than one of last year's co-hosts, Steve Martin), and some people aren't quite sure what to make of the selection. Sasha Stone headlines her initial reaction "Spit Take," though she later says she's "learning to live with this." But Tom O'Neil thinks it's a good move: "Finally – hallelujah – the Oscars have stopped hiring rent-a-clowns from New York like Jon Stewart, Chris Rock and David Letterman as hosts," he writes, calling Franco and Hathaway "two hot, hip and beloved film stars." Wow – have they really reached beloved status so soon?
Kyle Buchanan would like to assure us that Franco and Hathaway are not the weirdest Oscar hosts – so he presents a batch of weirder ones, beginning with Australian actor/screenwriter Paul Hogan, the last person to host the year he was also a nominee (as Franco is expected to do this year). His other candidates: the 1959 six-pack of Bob Hope, David Niven, Tony Randall, Mort Sahl, Laurence Olivier and Jerry Lewis; AMPAS president Frank Capra; an animated Donald Duck; and four years of no-host Oscars. Somewhere, Irvin S. Cobb and Walter Wanger are wondering why they didn’t make the cut. (Vulture)
The Carpetbagger is back. Melena Ryzik, who took over the New York Times' franchise from David Carr last year, makes her return to the awards beat with a "hi, I'm back" piece, a confession that she "will need help" figuring things out, and a article on … "The Hurt Locker?" Yep – apparently last year's race didn’t sour her on writing about director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, so she prefaces her venture into the current race with a "where-are-they-now" look at last year's trophy kids. Where they are, as Boal told me when I ran into the pair at the Governors Awards a few weeks ago, is working on getting the South American drug tale "Triple Frontier" off the ground, though Boal also hopes to return to his magazine journalism days by squeezing in a story for Rolling Stone before that film starts shooting next year. (The New York Times)
Scott Feinberg updates his Oscar predictions, with "The Social Network" remaining on top and "The King's Speech" continuing to hold down the number two spot. The most interesting change: a week ago, he had "True Grit" ranked ninth, and the Coen Brothers seventh among Best Director candidates; now, he's got the film and the Coens in third place on the picture and director charts. Reactions to the movie are embargoed, but "True Grit" screened in New York over the weekend … you do the math. (ScottFeinberg.com)
Noah Forrest offers nine ways to "fix the Oscars," which include reducing the Best Picture nominees back to five, putting the honorary awards back into the main telecast, revealing the vote count or the order of finish, and making the show longer, not shorter. ("We have all the time in the world.") He also says "I don't understand why actors have the right to choose which category they got nominated in," which means that what he really doesn't understand is that actors don't have that right – the nominating ballot in the acting branch specifically instructs voters to ignore campaign suggestions. As for the rest … he makes some suggestions that might work, but good luck getting the Academy to implement many (or any) of them. (Movie City News)
