Is it too early to talk about who might host the next Oscar show?
Apparently not.
The Corner Cinema website made a few suggestions yesterday. Sasha Stone added some of her own today. The discussion, it seems, is open.
Of course this is all a bit premature – the Oscar host is chosen by the show’s producer, in consultation with the Academy. And as of yet, we don’t have a producer … at least not one who’s been announced. So at the moment, the person mostly responsible for picking the successor to Hugh Jackman (below) may not even be in place. (Photo: AMPAS)
But let’s play along anyway. Ricky Gervais or Eddie Izzard? Hugh Jackman or Steve Martin?
First, a little history. Before and after the Oscar reigns of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson (18 and five gigs as host, respectively), the Academy often as not used a variety of hosts in the same show: Richard Pryor, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn and Warren Beatty one year, Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Paul Hogan another, and sometimes just a raft of presenters who often went under the heading “friends of Oscar.”
It reached a peak, if you can call it that, in the infamous 1989 show produced by Allan Carr. That night, there was no host, just dozens of Oscar's pals assembled in various groupings: Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart, Michael Caine and Sean Connery and Roger Moore …
The show was such a glitzy, tacky, messy disaster that an Academy review committee was formed to figure out what went wrong. The committee came up with recommendations (emphasize film clips rather than production numbers; cut down on presenter chit-chat …), one of which was to use a single host.
Since then, it’s been one man (or woman), one show. And most of the time, that one man (or woman) has stand-up comedy experience, along with some connection, however peripheral, to the movie business. Billy Crystal did it eight times, Whoopi Goldberg four, Steve Martin and Jon Stewart twice, and David Letterman, Chris Rock and Ellen DeGeneres once each.
Occasionally, feelers were put out to a movie star rather than a comic, but the likes of Tom Hanks and George Clooney could never be persuaded to tackle the gig. Last year’s host, Hugh Jackman, who had plenty of stage experience, was the first real break with the comic tradition in two decades.
So now, here we are, looking for somebody to follow Jackman’s well-received turn. The Corner Cinema suggested Ricky Gervais, Eddie Izzard, Meryl Streep, Tina Fey and, um, Barack Obama. Stone added Jackman, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, past hosts Letterman, Martin, Crystal and Rock, and Ryan Seacrest “because the outcry would be hilarious.” Readers threw Neil Patrick Harris, Kevin Spacey and Conan O’Brien into the mix.
My take: the Academy loved Jackman. They liked having a real movie star up there. They found him charming and charismatic.
