UPDATE – It’s official. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced that James Franco and Anne Hathaway will indeed host this year’s Oscars…
Well this would certainly be…different.
According to Deadline, an offer has been made to James Franco and Anne Hathaway to co-host this years’ Oscars. According to the same source, it “looks like” both actors will accept.
Both are highly talented and I’m sure would do a fine job, though this is a pretty radical departure from the Oscar host line-up going all the way back to before I was born. Since the mid-seventies, the overwhelming majority of hosts have been either comedians or comic actors, and only a few times (Hugh Jackman) has this parade been broken.
Now, Franco and Hathaway are both technically comedic actors as well, as both have appeared in a number of very funny films, but they would be a far cry from the Billy Crystal/Whoopi Goldberg/Steve Martin rotation that was going on for fifteen years. Same goes for Jon Stewart, Ellen Degeneres and Chris Rock, who are funny yes, but a different class of actors than Franco or Hathaway who are actively headlining movies.
The added complication is that Franco is more than likely going to be nominated for his role in Danny Boyle’s 127 HOURS, a performance people can’t stop raving about. I’m trying to find this out, but maybe any uber movie buffs out there can help me. Has a host ever been nominated for, or won, an Oscar before? If so, it had to be more than forty or fifty years ago.
Would hosting hurt or help Franco’s chances? And is it awkward to have a host in the running for an award, or would this pair be a good choice?
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