Winning the role of the next Oscars host was the icing on the cake for Neil Patrick Harris, proving that life really doesn’t suck for the former “Doogie Howser” child star.
Other elements of the actor’s best week ever include birthdays, books and the sweet box office success of his latest film, “Gone Girl,” which made $26.8 million in its second weekend.
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Harris’ dream week literally started off with cake when he and husband David Burtka celebrated their twins (Gideon and Harper) turning four on Monday. On Tuesday, his memoir “Choose Your Own Autobiography” hit bookstores.
“Yesterday I celebrated the birth of my twins. Tomorrow I celebrate the birth of my book. I hope the book poops less,” he joked on Twitter.
Then, of course, came the biggest announcement of the week for the former Tonys and Emmys host, with Wednesday’s announcement that he’ll host the 87th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 22, 2015, airing on ABC.
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“It has been epic,” Harris said during an interview with SiriusXM’s Entertainment Weekly Radio that will air Friday. “I knew that these dates were happening for the book, so that was all set for months and months.
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“Then the Oscar thing happened very randomly at the end of last week, that it was maybe a possibility and to sort of think about it over the weekend, and then Monday it might happen, then all of a sudden we get a call that day … it was a little bit of a panic as we wanted to come up with a clever way to announce it over social media, but we wanted to slow play it.”
The official revelation via a cheeky “ticking off his bucket list” post on Harris’ social media was co-producer Craig Zadan‘s idea, Harris told Sirius, and was inspired by Ellen DeGeneres‘ announcement regarding the 2014 Oscars. “They wanted something similar but different.”
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While the gig is set in stone, details are up in the air, the “How I Met Your Mother” star revealed. Harris still has a lot of questions including, “How many people have to say ‘yes’” before anything is approved.
“I know what I want them [the Oscars] not to be — I don’t want them to be the same awards-hosting gigs that I have done at the Tonys, just on a different stage.”
Viewers should expect the show to be “movie-centric” with clip packages, musical numbers and hopefully some magic tricks from the multi-talented host.