Hugh Jackman is hosting the Oscars.

[BenShultz]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0627281/

Huh. Is he funny?

[mavrach]

I don't know how funny he is, but I'm happy that at least they're getting an actual actor to host these awards, as opposed to a comedian that doesn't make that many movies and less decent ones. Even Jon Stewart joked that the closest he came was being the 4th male lead in Death to Smoochy.

[molly1216]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0627281/

Huh. Is he funny?

screw funny, we have had funny...he's charming...
i may even Watch the damn things because of him.

some men were born to wear a tux...
now if clive owen shows up to present..mama gonna be wearin her 'O' face .

[BenShultz]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0627281/

Huh. Is he funny?

screw funny, we have had funny...he's charming...
i may even Watch the damn things because of him.

some men were born to wear a tux...
now if clive owen shows up to present..mama gonna be wearin her 'O' face .

Screw funny? I'm sorry, but isn't "funny" pretty much the whole point of the Oscar host?

[mkiker2089]

I don't know how funny he is, but I'm happy that at least they're getting an actual actor to host these awards, as opposed to a comedian that doesn't make that many movies and less decent ones. Even Jon Stewart joked that the closest he came was being the 4th male lead in Death to Smoochy.

But the oscar's isn't a movie, it's a tv show. It needs a TV host, like Bob Barker, doesn't it.

[cdouglas]

Hmmm. I could see this going well. I'm willing to give Jackman a shot.

[Steve T Power]

He's pretty hilarious actually.

[mavrach]

I don't know how funny he is, but I'm happy that at least they're getting an actual actor to host these awards, as opposed to a comedian that doesn't make that many movies and less decent ones. Even Jon Stewart joked that the closest he came was being the 4th male lead in Death to Smoochy.

But the oscar's isn't a movie, it's a tv show. It needs a TV host, like Bob Barker, doesn't it.

Sure but the ceremony is meant to honor the greatest talent in filmmaking today. Surely they can find somebody in movies who can host worth a damn.

Speaking of which, that's why I'm mad that half the presenters are reading from a telepromptor. What the hell are you doing at the Oscars, or acting in general, if you can't memorize a one-minute speech?

[molly1216]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0627281/

Huh. Is he funny?

screw funny, we have had funny...he's charming...
i may even Watch the damn things because of him.

some men were born to wear a tux...
now if clive owen shows up to present..mama gonna be wearin her 'O' face .

Screw funny? I'm sorry, but isn't "funny" pretty much the whole point of the Oscar host?

someone should have mentioned that to the last 4 or 5 of them.
i have found almost none of them funny.
granted i loved john stewart but he wasn't a good fit...he's much better commenting after the fact.
billy crystal was the closest they came to a perfect fit

[J.M. Vargas]

The Oscar's new producers (including Bill Condon, director/writer of "Kinsley" and "Dreamgirls" among various films) were instructed by the academy to stay away from 'funny' this year, so Hugh won't be doing a monologue or expected to be funny. He's a showman with Tony-hosting experience though, and international appeal beyond just the USA (as most previous Oscar hosts aimed their humor to an American mindset) to signal how much foreign box office has influenced Hollywood's mindset. I can live with Hugh Jackman but would have preferred Ricky Gervais as the host: classy, engaging and with everyday man appeal (at least worldwide). Also with a couple of romantic comedy box office bombs under his belt, just like Billy Crystal.

[the5thghostbuster]

Good choice and a nice change up.

[Michael Stailey]

There won't be a host or a show, if SAG approves a strike next month.

[Movie Mike]

I just wish I'd been alive when Bob Hope hosted the Oscars. He hosted a record 18 times and from the clips I've seen he was damn funny.

[Dan Mancini]

There won't be a host or a show, if SAG approves a strike next month.

I guess every cloud has its silver lining.

[BrettCullum]

There won't be a host or a show, if SAG approves a strike next month.

I guess every cloud has its silver lining.

Amen brother. AMEN!

[Belmondo]

I just wish I'd been alive when Bob Hope hosted the Oscars. He hosted a record 18 times and from the clips I've seen he was damn funny.

Bob Hope - "Welcome to the Oscars; or as they call it in my house - Passover".

[molly1216]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjPaTUD3N4

I may seriously sit through this damn thing.

[barnaclelapse]

I don't know how funny he is, but I'm happy that at least they're getting an actual actor to host these awards, as opposed to a comedian that doesn't make that many movies and less decent ones. Even Jon Stewart joked that the closest he came was being the 4th male lead in Death to Smoochy.

But the oscar's isn't a movie, it's a tv show. It needs a TV host, like Bob Barker, doesn't it.

That's kind of my logic.

I'm not much of a Hugh Jackman fan, but I can see him being a pleasant, easy-to-put-up-with host.

[J.M. Vargas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjPaTUD3N4

I may seriously sit through this damn thing.

I was half-tempted to tune in until I read the highlighted paragraph below and felt like puking: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/oscars-crisis-hollywood-frustrations-and-fears-over-sundays-awards-stars-and-advertisers-give-show-cold-shoulder/

The people who put on the Academy Awards are in a flopsweat panic as the hours tick away before this year's big broadcast, which is having its major rehearsal and tech run-throughs today. For weeks now, they've been begging me and the other journalists who cover the Oscars not to trash the planning and performances for this year's telecast like we have in years past. Because their frustration and fear is that, if Sunday's top-to-bottom reworked show can't bring back viewers after 2008's sunk to its lowest ratings ever, then nothing will. And the worst part is that not even Hollywood wants to participate in the Oscars anymore.

I can report that this year's producers are privately complaining that the biggest movie stars in the world like Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Kate Winslet gave them reasons galore -- some serious, some trivial -- for why they didn't want to present awards, once considered a huge honor. (For instance, Kidman said she appear onstage without the "right" hairdresser. George Clooney wouldn't reschedule his current visit to Darfur refugee camps in Africa. And Winslet, the Best Actress shoo-in, claimed she was too "nervous" to take it on.) One of the few bigtime actresses who didn't balk was Reese Witherspoon. These behind-the-scenes embarrassments are one reason why the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences took the unprecedented step this year of failing to make public the list of Oscar presenters. There's even talk now of bringing back those official $100,000+ Oscar baskets of expensive freebies that used to be given to the show's presenters and performers (before Uncle Sam decided to tax the giveaways) as a way to bribe Hollywood into lending its star power.

And the lack of major celebrities is one reason why the producers may finally be able to keep the show's running time to their goal of 3 hours and 15 minutes instead of the usual dragfest that has driven away TV audiences with every passing year. But, in the process, the producers lost Peter Gabriel who refused to sing his Best Original Song from Wall-E, "Down To Earth", in what he claimed was the insulting allotted time of only 65 seconds for each of the 3 tunes in a medley. The producers also have dissed last year's actor winners by deciding that France's Marion Cotillard (Best Actress for La Vie En Rose) and Spain's Javier Bardem (Best Supporting Actor for No Country For Old Men), Scotland's Tilda Swinton (Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton) and even England's Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor for There Will Be Blood) weren't big enough names to carry on the time-honored tradition of announcing this year's winners by themselves. So, I've learned, the unusual step will be taken to bring onstage in a group other past Best Actor or Best Supporting Actress winners in order to add more glitz and glamor to the presentations. (Not to mention that Australia's Heath Ledger won't be picking up his Best Supporting Actor award this year.) Oh, but don't worry: last year's winners will still get to open the envelope and announce who won.

So much for this year's Academy Awards shaping up as the most international ever: AMPAS is truly concerned that Americans don't care about Bollywood's Slumdog Millionaire, the shoo-in for Best Picture, its director Danny Boyle for Best Director and other 2009 honors. Even the choice of host this year, Australia's Hugh Jackman, was intended to pump up the overseas interest in the Oscars. But on Friday, people close to the X-Men and upcoming Wolverine star still felt the need to release a viral video on YouTube of a very buff Jackman, his biceps bulging, making fun of previous Oscar hosts as he rehearsed a song-and-dance number. And the fact that so many Oscar categories have been locked in since December, and therefore marquee nominees like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie locked out for months, have only added to the anxiety among organizers. They even tried, and failed, to convince celebrity publicists to bring clients around to a side entrance at the Kodak Theatre instead of onto the Red Carpet Sunday in order to keep secret what the stars would be wearing so it could be a surprise for the telecast. One new idea thought up by the producers that will be seen Sunday? Trophy boys. The result is that very handsome young men will now join very beautiful young women on stage carrying out the Oscar statuettes. If that's not an acknowledgement that the viewership for the Academy Awards these days is limited to only females and gays, I don't know what is.

Meanwhile, a group of online bloggers has led an audience boycott of the Oscars among the predominantly male fans of The Dark Knight because of the Academy voters' snub of the $1 billion-in-worldwide-grosses comic book caper for a Best Picture nomination and its Chris Nolan for Best Director. And that's yet another problem that hurts viewership: this year, too, the most popular movies aren't in contention for the major category Academy Awards. That drives away younger viewers. So it's little wonder that ABC in this economic freefall scrambled to drop prices for 30-second ads and replace two of the key sponsors for its Sunday broadcast, General Motors and L'Oreal. Not even the prospect of 30+ million U.S. viewers could lure advertisers who've cut their TV budgets to the bone. Prices for Oscars spots averaged $1.7 million last year, but now are going for as cheap as $1.4 million. The result is that, in a departure from tradition, parent company Walt Disney had to let its rival movie studios buy time on the telecast.

[Tinderbox]

I'd rather be molested repeatedly by a pack of rabid weasels than watch the Oscars.

[molly1216]

i agree...dissing non americans is a sin
MOST of the people who watch this Effing thing are NOT IN THE US

[barnaclelapse]

Gah...I'm still watching.

It's not like I have a life or anything.

[J.M. Vargas]

Razzie Award "winners": http://www.razzies.com/history/08winners.asp

Worst Picture: The Love Guru

Worst Actor: Mike Myers (The Love Guru)

Worst Actress: Paris Hilton (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton (REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA)

Worst Supporting Actor: Pierce Brosnan (MAMMA MIA!)

Worst Screen Couple: Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Prequel,Remake, Rip-off or Sequel (Combined Category for 2008): Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Worst Director: Uwe Boll (1968: Tunnel Rats, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Postal)

Worst Screenplay: The Love Guru (Written by Mike Myers & Graham Gordy)

Worst Career Achievement: Uwe Boll (Germany’s Answer to Ed Wood)

[hoytereden]

I usually end up watching it-out of tradition probably more than genuine interest. It used to be a big deal, or at least seemed to be when I was growing up. Now there are so many other awards given that by the time Oscar comes around it's anti-climactic. And yes, Bob Hope and then Johnny Carson were funny hosts who both knew how to run a show. Billy Crystal was the next best but the others have been at best; forgetable.

[azul017]

i agree...dissing non americans is a sin
MOST of the people who watch this Effing thing are NOT IN THE US

Tell that to the rush of Drudge commenters on Nikki Finke's article about this year's Oscars claiming that Hollywood is anti-American, yadda yadda. Quite sickening.

Now the Oscars is little more than three hours' worth of Hollywood pleasuring itself in front of a public audience, it's been that way since it first started. I dunno if Hugh Jackman will liven it up enough to be worth watching, but we'll see.

[TemporalWisdom]

Razzie Award "winners": http://www.razzies.com/history/08winners.asp

Worst Picture: The Love Guru

Worst Actor: Mike Myers (The Love Guru)

Worst Actress: Paris Hilton (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton (REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA)

Worst Supporting Actor: Pierce Brosnan (MAMMA MIA!)

Worst Screen Couple: Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Prequel,Remake, Rip-off or Sequel (Combined Category for 2008): Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Worst Director: Uwe Boll (1968: Tunnel Rats, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Postal)

Worst Screenplay: The Love Guru (Written by Mike Myers & Graham Gordy)

Worst Career Achievement: Uwe Boll (Germany’s Answer to Ed Wood)

Maybe Paris Hilton is that bad. I don't know; I haven't seen her. But maybe she was chosen because of the dislike and outright hostility she engenders? Come on. I never take the Razzies seriously.

[Steve T Power]

Razzie Award "winners": http://www.razzies.com/history/08winners.asp

Worst Picture: The Love Guru

Worst Actor: Mike Myers (The Love Guru)

Worst Actress: Paris Hilton (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton (REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA)

Worst Supporting Actor: Pierce Brosnan (MAMMA MIA!)

Worst Screen Couple: Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore (THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE)

Worst Prequel,Remake, Rip-off or Sequel (Combined Category for 2008): Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Worst Director: Uwe Boll (1968: Tunnel Rats, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Postal)

Worst Screenplay: The Love Guru (Written by Mike Myers & Graham Gordy)

Worst Career Achievement: Uwe Boll (Germany’s Answer to Ed Wood)

Maybe Paris Hilton is that bad. I don't know; I haven't seen her. But maybe she was chosen because of the dislike and outright hostility she engenders? Come on. I never take the Razzies seriously.

I take it just that much more seriously than the Oscars, which isn't much.

[Dan Mancini]

I take it just that much more seriously than the Oscars, which isn't much.

Even if we pretend there was a time when the Razzies were funny (there wasn't), the internet has made them spectacularly lame. The Love Guru sucked? Why, that's a bust-a-gut hilarious observation to make in February of 2009, a full 8 months after the flick hit theaters and after every movie site on the net has already shredded it. I'm laughing so hard it's taking an enormous effort not to wet myself.