HATHAWAY AND FRANCO AND OSCARS

Can't be any worse than DeGeneres or Baldwin/Martin last year.

Hathaway actually has a decent singing voice and Franco has good comic timing, so I can see this working.

What's weird is that Franco will likely be nominated for Best Actor and probably has a decent chance of winning. I guess it'll be a busy night for him.

Ellen was THE WORST. Dancing with a gospel choir? Nearly vacuuming Penelope Cruz's dress? Horrendous. I like Anne, but I'm not on the Franco bandwagon like so many others. Maybe that'll change when I see 127 Hours.

Please no more useless montages. Please. In Memoriam's the only one that has to be there.

He's fucking AMAZING in it.

I like these two as performers. Whoever's writing the ceremony will waste them both in this capacity.

What I love about Franco is how unpredictable his choices are. Great actor too.

Hathaway should be good fun, and hopefully Franco can bring some of his PE schtick to the proceedings

PS End the montage clapping! They tried two years ago and people clapped anyway. It is utterly classless, it is like a Grief O Meter where the collective saddness for a given death is measured in applause

Is it too much to ask Franco to spend the whole night in character as Saul?

They're 2 cool actors and all, but it's like the Oscars aren't even trying anymore.

And Hadaway as her character in Havoc, so she can be naked half the show!

If Franco's as high as he was on SNL, I'm watching the shit out of this:

Very interested in this, especially for Franco. Although Hathaway in a variety of hot dresses isn't going to hurt too much.

Of course the writing will be horrible but these will be the first Oscars I might watch in ages.

I like both of these guys as actors, but as hosts? I look forward to three hours of barely rehearsed cue card reading. And has a host ever won an Oscar the same night he was hosting? That'll be interesting.

Yeaaaah, this is probably a bad idea. The Oscars are sort of intolerable anyway, but Hathaway and Franco would probably be better served doing something else. They should get Richard Jeni to host this year, bet it would blow his mind if they asked.

Sigh. Why can't there be a classy actor doing this year after year? I hate the MTV Movie Awards every year another host thing. I'd rather have The Host host this.

Anne Hathaway, is a great choice to host the Academy Awards. Harry Osborne will be fine as her...sidekick! Sorry, I am not a...Francofile.

While I like the idea of passing the baton to New Hollywood as far as hosting duties go, unless their passing the baton to some young great talents in the writing room as well, this will just be more excruciating boredom - and both Hathaway and Franco are likeable and talented enough to deserve better.

They need someone who can host, not be basic triage stitching montages and awards together. That's why Jon Stewert and Steve Martin both killed--they were ringmasters, not teleprompter slaves.

They also missed the perfect storm of ratings and hype by not getting Conan to do it. Actually, hell, Jimmy Kimmel already works for the network, and his post-Oscar specials are almost always better than the actual show--let HIM do it.

I'd certainly tune in to see this!

Both are fine actors but this seems bad to me. As greg Clark said. You need hosts not performers. a Jon Stewart, Conan or Craig Ferguson would be much better. Hell just have NPH host everything ever or even better Jon Hamm. Franco and Hathaway is such and odd and yet such a Hollywood choice.

This is some shit.

At least it is not the most...Unfunny comedian ever...Conan O'Brien! Jay Leno, David Letterman, and all the current Late night hosts, should be kept far away from hosting the Oscars. Anne Hathaway, is a terrific choice. I fully expect the oscars to receive a ratings...Bounce, from the curvy miss Hathaway! She should keep us...aBreast of the winners with aplomb! It was good to see, The Academy...Get Smart, with their choice of host. There are...99, good reasons that she will...CONTROL the crowd, as well.

This is gonna suck. Also dampens Franco's chances of winning Best Actor.

No. It will be awesome. They should go all the way and have him present himself announcing his own Oscar. And have the jokes written by Kaufman. Franco will be up to it. Probably do it in drag, too.

Least it isn't Justin Bieber or some shit.

Richard Jeni killed himself three years ago because he wasn't successful enough, so I agree, that would be pretty awesome if they asked him, though mostly because of the morbid irony.

Also, why bitch about how stupid and/or pointless the oscars are? At this point, we all get the deal with them. As far as the hosts go, I'm surprised they didn't get comedians, but it should be different enough to be interesting. I liked Jackman, for example.

Gilbert Gottfried.

Too soon!

Rhonda Shear, should host, The Oscars, as most of the USA, will be...Up All Night!

Conan will get it one of these days. I like that they're trying new things as of late -- Jackman and Martin/Baldwin were at the very least unique, with Jackman aquitting himself quite well. For someone more interested in the show aspect of the Oscars, this is interesting enough that I look forward to it.

Also, Ellen was pretty good. As the great Sean Bateman is fond of saying, haters gonna hate.

Conan gets it next year, I'm almost certain. He probably would have gotten it this year had his TBS show debuted a few months earlier.

I'm actually looking forward to Hathaway/Franco. They'll be good together, I'll wager.

Like Anne Hathaway, don't like Franco. I saw him on SNL and thought he was pretty terrible.

I think Franco and Hathaway should at least be fun, but I guess I'm not one of those people who hopes for or expects greatness from the Oscars. I'd long ago given up watching the show, and only watched last year so I could participate in CHUD's delightful live commentary thread on the MB

The way I look at it, either Hathaway and Franco will be fun or they will crash and burn. Either way it should give us something to talk about. The Oscars themselves? Don't particularly care who wins and loses, though I'd no doubt be vexed by another CRASH taking the top spot or something

PS I think Bill Maher is the perfect man to host the Oscars. 1) He fits the bill (no pun intended!) for a performer who is first and foremost a host. He had to deal with inane actors ETC all the time back on Politically Incorrect, and still has to do heavy lifting at times on his show to carry the dead weight with his panel 2) His history of Oscar animosity (he is still very pissed that RELIGULOUS didn't get nominated, and views it as something of a conspiracy) should make for a hilariously evening. Expect lots uncomfortable tension!

Christopher Walken.

I win.

If this were 2007.
Jeff Goldblum is the new Christopher Walken.

Point.

I dispute this. Michael Shannon is the new Christopher Walken.

Goddamn it, Lindsay Lohan. I would watch the shit out of that and so would everyone.

EDIT: No. Co-hosts Henry Rollins and Courtney Love. The evening would either live in infamy, or the two would do the punkest thing they could do and be completely well-behaved, in tux and tasteful dress.

EDIT II: Oh, what the fuck. Terrence Malick.

I think both Franco and Hathaway are pretty good choices as host/hostess of the Oscar ceremony? Was an attempt to lure young viewers to watch the Academy Award telecast? You betcha, but that doesn't mean it won't work as well as that Hugh Jackman hosting gig a few years ago. I think Franco has a good sense of humor, whereas Hathaway can not only sing, but is also gorgeous to boot. I don't get why there's a controversy about it simply because Franco is a likely nominee for Best Actor; it's not like he will be the first nominee who hosted the Oscar anyway. Whether or not he wins the trophy should have no bearing on his qualification to host the award show.

Michael Shannon is the new Christopher Walken when he's Walken's age. He's been around, but he doesn't have the mililage that Walken does. I agree, though, that Goldblum is fast becoming the new Walken in terms of "quasi-cult actors with a unique and always entertaining delivery that everybody seems to love." I think that comes from the fact that he was a HUGE part of a lot of mid-to-late twenty-somethings childhoods with his JP-ID4-Lost World trifecta. In short, everybody loves Goldblum.

Goldblum was awesome as Nerd Action Hero in ID4 and the JP movies.

Me? I want Jim Carrey to host the Oscars. He'd at least be funny.

Hell, I'd watch the shit out of a Goldblum hosted, well, anything really - but then I've loved him for a lotta years now.

He's not just a nominee presenting another award; he's hosting the whole show. Generally that implies a higher level of participation than just introducing clips and nominees. And since he's a very likely winner this year, that actually would be a unique situation.

Where is all this "Franco's the front-runner" talk coming from? I thought that Colin Firth just about had that shit sewn up this early in the game.

I don't know the word on The King's Speech (although it looks to be right in line with Typical British Oscar Bait starring people I like), but Franco's got a lot of talk right now, and not just here. If I had to pick out of the murmurings for films that people have actually seen, Franco would be right up front.

See, and what I've heard from the talk not from here is that Franco is a close second/upset to Firth, who also has the "he should have won last year, but it wasn't his turn" momentum going for him.

That, and I think James Franco could very easily win an Oscar and then take photographs and write short stories or teach english at Yale for the rest of his life without ever acting again.

James Franco is the new Marlon Brando.
On Oscar night he'll send an american indian to fill in for him. Anne Hathaway will look like a deer in headlights.

No, Doug. You're the new Marlon Brando.