Now look, I love Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as much as the next guy, but it was clearly a stalled step to take after Hugh Jackman riled everyone up at the Oscars the year before. And since Jackman once again declined due to Aronofky-induced claw exposure, the Academy has chosen, this time, to take another step forward.
Young starlets James Franco and Anne Hathaway have been asked, and accepted, hosting duties for the 2011 Academy Awards, which will air February 27th. [Deadline] Apparently a significant indicator of the two young thespians’ live performance abilities came from their successful turns at hosting Saturday Night Live. And while that show has been more miss than hit as of late (late being, oh, the last decade), there’s no denying these two were among the highlights.
You be the judge of their live talents:
And Mr. Franco:
An interesting, and strange, question to ponder is James Franco’s lingering Best Actor nomination and potential win. An Oscar host has never won an Oscar the night they were hosting. Will he be the first?
Hathaway also has a chance with Love & Other Drugs, but it’s a longer shot and one that was more or less shot down due to the film’s less-than-stellar box office earnings last week. Which is a shame, because the film gets so much right. But hey, not everybody can get their hand pinned between a boulder and a crevice. Such is life.
What do you think of these hosts? Will they entertain? Raise the bar?