“I don’t know that my family nor my soul could take it,” Neil Patrick Harris told The Huffington Post about hosting the Oscars. “It’s a beast. It was fun to check off the list, but for the amount of time spent and the understandable opinionated response, I don’t know that it’s a delightful balance to do every year or even again.”
Neil Patrick Harris is the latest casualty tossed to the hungry beast – the wonderful modern invention of having a whole bunch of people tucked neatly behind their computer screens given the opportunity to have their collective opinions known. This has become an annual tradition that only a few hosts have managed to escape from unscathed. It is not too far off from how the Romans used to entertain the crowds in that each time some poor soul is tossed in the ring and subsequently savaged by a hate-united choir.
Some celebrities enter the ring willingly, lapping up every drop of attention, negative or otherwise. The Kardashians come to mind. They really don’t seem to mind that people are saying nasty things about them continually – as long as they are being talked about. I’d put all of the contestants of The Bachelor in that category. Keep the hate coming, folks. Gwyneth Paltrow has become the object of united hatred for being — um — successful at her job and maintaining her body to the tune of two hours of hard core exercise a day. The only upside to being the object of scorn? At least people don’t feel sorry for you. Once that happens, the hate-choir ceases and the defense pieces begin, as I guess I’m doing right this minute with Neil Patrick Harris.
Ellen DeGeneres did not too badly last year with her hosting. Part of that was the ratings jump. She was funny and the show was an exciting one. With a boring show like this year’s where the winners are so ho-hum you have nothing left to do but start attacking the host. DeGeneres’ biggest crime, apparently, was her willing endorsement of some phone product creating the Selfie of the Year, giving rise to a slew of those kinds of selfies. The horror, the horror.
Remember poor old whatshis name, Seth MacFarlane who incurred so much scorn that I’m pretty sure it also sunk his pretty funny A Million Ways to Die in the West. The worm had turned on MacFarlane after the Oscars.
I’m also fairly certain that the Anne Hathaway hate began around the time she hosted the Oscars. James Franco, the pink dress, the tunes – it was kind of a catastrophe as I recall but it’s hard to remember back that far.
Hugh Jackman did okay in one of the better received Oscars — at least I don’t remember any vicious hate spewing his way after that. Who ever knows why the worm turns and the crowd starts throwing tomatoes. Is it that people secretly hate and resent celebrities anyway? Is it that we all wish they would fail miserably like the rest of us? Is it that we can’t wait for them to get fat and get old and be unfunny and embarrass themselves because then that means we’re a little bit better off. With their fancy cars and their fancy houses and the parties and the pretty clothes and the money and the yachts and the supermodels and the …you get the picture. We love them. We hate them. We throw them away. We hold on to them desperately. We shame them. We celebrate them.
I don’t know who has the stones anymore to be next year’s Oscar host. Who would want to risk that kind of embarrassment in front of a judgmental, cruel, nit-picky, hungry beast? Harris will emerge fine from it all, I hope, I think. So far no one’s career has really been totally ruined. They just have to stand there while the apes and the monkeys fling the shit for a while until they feel better.
Okay, so maybe I’m being a tad dramatic. Maybe it doesn’t read as so horrible from the inside out. Harris did say this about the telecast:
I didn’t keep up with it obsessively, but it was interesting to see just what people thought landed and didn’t. It’s so difficult for one who’s simply watching the show to realize just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation has gone into almost every single thing. Every joke. Wording of joke. Placement of joke. Canceling of joke. Embellishment for just one line. And I’m not saying that to defend everything I said as if it was the absolute best choice, but it’s also an award show, and you’re powering through 14 acts filled with 20 plus awards. So my job was to try and keep things as light and specific to this year’s set of films as possible. And if people are critical of that, it’s a big giant platform, so I would assume that they would be.
I was glad we got through it, and I thought that those in the audience at the Dolby [Theatre] seemed to be enjoying themselves more as the show went on, when I was told that the opposite would be true. I was told that as the room fills, with you know it’s four-fifths of the room didn’t win, and you get further into the award giving they get less enthusiastic and less excited. And I felt while we were doing it that people were enjoying themselves more and more, so for that I’m happy.
Jack Black would work fine. He has the talent to do traditional musical stuff, enough edginess to please the cynics and younger viewers, and can play the gravitas game well enough to please the olguard. You don’t have ti be a big name to be a successful Oscar host.
NPH was the 2nd worst host ever behind Hathaway/James Franco. Couldn’t pronoounce names, NO HUMOR, that awful locked box running joke. Good riddance.
It looks like Meron and Zadan are gone for Oscars 2016. Whoever next producers better start referring next year’s ceremony as the 88th Annual Academy Awards or I’ll be pissed.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQqQIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Foscar-producers-craig-zadan-neil-779984&ei=nPf8VNTzKNCqogSmiYLYDw&usg=AFQjCNGsuQneJTQIEKl3FheACLIsH5kudw&bvm=bv.87611401,d.cGU
@John
I agree. No matter what host you get (be it Fey, Poehler, Jackman, Crystal, Martin, DeGeneres, Baldwin, Stewart), a host needs a teriffic writing team. Otherwise, it’s all meaningless.
I honestly believe that Amy and Tina would get panned, too. They werent even that great the last GG show. Honestly, I really do feel, at this point, thats its down to the writers. A great comedian(s) +solid writing for a great opening bit + someone(s) who can feel-out the room as the night progresses and as unexpected events pop-up = what is NEEDED.
Maybe Dame Edna.
We really need to remember that NPH is, hands-down, the best host of the Tony Awards of all-time. I feel he’s a little less neutered on a show like that. He’s also a tremendous Emmy host. I, for one, loved Jon Stewart as the host. I also loved Chris Rock.
Whoopi, Steve, Billy — also great hosts because they are tried and true stand-up comedians.
Alec Baldwin, James Franco, Anne Hathaway — CAN be funny, but not independent of a script, a camera and a character.
It’s too bad you can’t have Jimmy Fallon host, but I doubt ABC and NBC would be down for that.
Melissa McCarthy would be a fun host. I also like the pairing of Tina Fey and Steve Martin.
Tina and Amy seems a little desperate – to just copy the GG like that.
I agree that the current producers seem to care more for unrelated production numbers than movies. Thinking back over previous shows, these were things that stood out in previous years hey need to bring back:
– more montages, both of Oscar history and the current year being honoured. One year, long ago, they would run a series of short clips of every past Best Actor/Actress performance before presenting the current winner. It was inspiring.
– get rid of the film title flash cards in the minor categories and show examples of the actual nominees. Show the costumes, some great cinematography shots, example of VFX, etc. Don’t shunt these categories aside.
– get more film legends to present and forget so-and-so who has a new series debuting on ABC this summer.
– No. More. Production. Numbers. Gaga was fantastic, but it was time spent on something that had nothing to do with the 2014 year in film.
Finally, everybody will agree that the remarks on social media are far more entertaining than the pap provided by the show’s writers. Incorporate these into the broadcast. The audience works in show biz – they thrive on immediate public response.
The host usually takes it in the neck for a badly produced or uninteresting show. It was shocking to see NPH publically neutered like that and I don’t think anybody – even Bob Hope – could have overcome that. His only fault was that he went along with it.
If they’re going to go “insider,” though, why not Nathan Lane or Martin Short? I guess, in the end, though, it will really always depend on the writing and the producers. Hopefully they won’t keep pandering to younger audiences, lest we end up seeing Taylor Swift hosting next year
I say this every year, but Craig Ferguson! I’d love to see Amy and Tina, of course, but they’ve both already said they never would. I think Aisha Tyler would be pretty cool, too.
But Jackman had Bill Condon who obviously loves the Oscars and cares about the tradition of the Oscars.
He proved back then that change could happen for the telecast but change that would appeal to people like me who love it when Oscars pay tribute to their history. The 2009 show was both a change in terms of the pacing of the Oscars, the show was quite different, but at the same time they had so many legends on stage and the show was a tribute to the myth of Hollywood as well.
NPH had these two people who ruined the Oscars for three years in a row. And I’m furious that the Academy doesn’t even care. These two don’t even know how to make a decent show. Under their guidance, the Oscars are all about songs and not about movies. I know what they have in store for next year – three song tributes, a show with the same structure as last year and that’s it. A show that’s all about celebrities and not about movies. I HOPE THE ACADEMY FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY GETS RID OF THEM!
That’s it.
Meron/Zadan need to be replaced. I can’t believe we’ve seen three Oscar telecasts produced by two guys who barely seem to like movies and seemingly would prefer to be doing the Tonys instead. Their self-serving “Chicago” tribute was topped only by having Jennifer Hudson bring one of their own songs from “Smash” during the In Memoriams.
The biggest issue is the “the problem with the Oscar show is that we have to give out all these awards” mentality. I daresay that this is the ONLY awards show that actors/directors/writers/producers truly want to win; if you hooked any multi-time Emmy or Tony winner to a lie detector, they’d say they’d happily trade all their lesser trophies for an Oscar. Also, this is the absolute peak for so many deserving costumers, makeup people, sound editors, editors, etc. who finally get a moment in their sun for their wonderful, unappreciated work…let them have their moment to shine rather than hurriedly playing them off to get to something else.
When you get this production mentality in front of a live audience that’s actually taking it seriously and really WANTS you to get to the awards, it creates for an uneasy tension in the theatre and that comes through to the TV viewing audience. Harris is a very talented guy but he’s not a natural comedian….even worse, he thinks he’s kind of a comedian. At least Hugh Jackman (whose skillset was very similar) knew enough to stick to his strengths, which is why he was probably the best host in recent memory.
As much I love Tina & Amy, I’m not sure their schtick would translate well to an Oscar broadcast for the thankless reasons that Sasha articulated, not to mention the fact that
a) the Oscar telecast is heavily produced, to the point of being overproduced. The Golden Globes more or less just let Tina/Amy do what they wanted
b) the Golden Globes brand is ‘a big Hollywood party’ and they’re more openly seen as a bit of a joke. Conversely, this makes the show generally more fun since nobody is taking is too seriously.
c) two-thirds of the crowd is wasted by the opening of the show, so they’re in more of a laughing mood.
Remember poor old whatshis name, Seth MacFarlane who incurred so much scorn that I’m pretty sure it also sunk his pretty funny A Million Ways to Die in the West.
Uh, that was arguably the worst movie of 2014. Macfarlane could’ve been better than Hope and Carson combined and that awful movie still would’ve bombed.
I believe Bob Hope is where RuPaul actually got her well-known catchphrases “Oh no she betta don’t” and “She done already had herses” #funfact
Being an Oscar Host has become like wanting to be President: who is their right mind would want such a titanic responsibility, and yet there is a certain list of people who are willing to take the risk if just for the opportunity. There will be so much scrutiny, but the draw is insatiable.
I respect Gwyneth, but she is still pretty loopy: Apple speaks for itself.
“To all of you who suggest Tina and Amy for the Oscars – yeah, let them host and then we will all see them fail for the first time. No, thanks.”
I do worry about this. I LOVE them to death and part of me really wants to see them try. But I can think of about a dozen of their best moments from the Golden Globes that would either 1. be cut by the Academy or 2. get a negative backlash from a larger Oscar audience.
“I would be truly be surprised if ABC censoring is much of a factor.”
I may be stuck in the past a little bit on this one. I’ve read lots of accounts where this happened, but admittedly they’ve probably relaxed a bit since then. Still, I suspect that ABC’s standards may be different for an event like the Oscars, where they expect a broad cross section of the public to tune in, than it might be for some of their other programming, where audience self-selection makes them feel like they can get away with a bit more.
No, wait, actually…
RuPaul. Beat RuPaul for hosting anything, people. You can’t get better.
I think we can all agree that RuPaul is the Bob Hope of the 21st Century
If NPH let his inner Barney Stinson out the show could’ve been AMAZING. And enough with 1) the tributes to classic films, we don’t need more songs and 2) enough with a song AFTER the In Memoriam section. Doing away with those two things will cut the running time down by at least 10 or 15 minutes. When a show runs long on a Sunday night, at least for us East Coasters, 15 minutes is everything.
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are talentless hacks who don’t even seem to WATCH awards shows. They fall back on the same tired cliches of saluting older movies, playing the same clips we’ve seen over and over again, not hiring presenters who know how to handle themselves on stage, and wasting time with embarrassing numbers. The tribute to Chicago from the 2012 show will live in Oscar infamy as one of the most self-serving things ever seen on the telecast. It’s also compounded by the fact that Zadan and Meron, supposedly the on set producers of the movie, weren’t given the Oscar when it won Best Picture – that went to Martin Richards, who owned the property from the original Broadway production onward. Richards died that year and was left off the in memoriam. Coincidence much?
I think Sasha has a big point here. Would we have loved Billy Crystal as much if we had today’s internet culture back then? I’m not so sure. Haters would probably eat him alive because apparently that’s what we do now to every host. Look at the response to Crystal’s hosting in 2012. Everyone is a bad choice now, because they’re either too satirical or too timid. Too much controversy or too litte. I know it should be about the balance, but damn it, people, it’s starting to look impossible to me.
To all of you who suggest Tina and Amy for the Oscars – yeah, let them host and then we will all see them fail for the first time. No, thanks. It’s the same old thing, year after year, and I’m starting to get really pissed off about it. They seriously need to change the ceremony or we all need to shut the fuck up and stop expecting God knows what, because otherwise we will be stuck in this situation for good. It’s not about the host anymore.
Look at the response to Crystal’s hosting in 2012.
with respect, I think comparing Crystal hosting in 1990 to Crystal hosting in 2012 is like comparing Bob Hope hosting in 1968 to Bob Hope hosting in 2012.
or, put it this way (with a little less respect): Who wants to see Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars in 2025?
Neil Patrick Harris could have been a great host this year if they let him BE Neil Patrick Harris and not a generic tux mannequin who talks like a subplot from a rejected episode of Two and a Half Men.
One would think, after being in show business for 100 years, Hollywood would understand that you can’t stick a charming face onscreen and expect it to entertain anyone if you don’t have witty words coming out of its charming mouth.
It was not a failure of the host. It was a failure at the highest level: conception, creation, production. Of course the Academy wants to blame anyone BUT the real culprits.
Anyone who doubts NPH wouldn’t have been fantastic if he had any decent material to work with must have missed the opening number. Did they just run out of ideas after the first 10 minutes? That’s the fault of two very lazy tasteless producers. Zadan and Meron. Get rid of those jokers.
” Instead of fawning over him like he’s their 42-yr-old boytoy.”
LOL!
You’re right of course that we’re not watching it because of the producers. (I’m not so sure that the boytoy part hurt though). And letting him do the “magic” trick was just awful. Personally, I think they need to make better use of their other presenters. Will Farrell and Jack Black singing “The Oscar Song” or even Ben Stiller in Avatar makeup were better than John Travolta embarrassing himself (again) with Idina Menzel. I’ve got lots of complaints about the way they do the songs (both nominated and not), and lots of other things.
What I don’t know, of course, is which of the problems are really their making and which ones are constraints that are placed on them. Between ABC censoring and AMPAS executive meddling, between playing to the room and to the tv, between showing “respect” and being “hip”, with everybody liking and disliking the exact opposite things. Not to mention always being compared to people’s nostalgic memories of the highlight reels from the past (while usually forgetting the dull moments that undoubtedly happened in each of those years). I’m not saying that it can’t be improved. Clearly it can. But in the grand scheme of things, I think the Academy probably feels like their attention needs to be elsewhere. At a certain point, they’re probably just glad they got through another year.
“Surely there are some 30-something gay people in LA who know how to put n a show. (NeverTooEarlyMP, let’s you and I go find them! We’ll scout out somebody fresh, I have not doubt.)
Better yet, Ryan, let’s put in a bid to do the show ourselves!
I would be truly be surprised if ABC censoring is much of a factor. ABC airs all kinds of very daring explicit programming 5 nights a week. There might be some of the usual constraints about certain things being more or less permissible at different hours of the evening. But network TV fairly seeths with innuendo at all hours these days.
But yes, you’re right. I imagine the AMPAS overseers have their noses up everybody’s butt at every turn.
The hosting of the Oscars is not a thankless job,it’s a hard job that needs the right host like Hugh Jackman or Neil Patrick Harris(with better material)even Jimmy Fallon.I remember people like Bob Hope(the greatest host of all time)hosting,all he did is do his monologue and introduce(sometimes enteract with)the presenters.Times are different,these days the host is suppose to do a song and dance act in the beginning(sometimes in the middle)of the Oscars.
May I suggest Roberto Benigni for the gig?
A trainwreck we simply can’t resist to watch.
And now for my catty answer:
“let’s rethink this whole idea of having two gay guys produce the Oscars.”
Really? The one group who has stuck by this show through thick and thin? The part of the ratings demographic that you can always count on? The ones who design your entire red carpet ensemble? You want to risk losing us because you think the straight boys are suddenly going to start caring about art if you throw in some extra frat jokes?
We already have to make room in our predictions for what films “the meat eaters” are going to like each year. We already have to put up with Oscar-Winner Crash because they couldn’t handle Brokeback. And now you want the heteros to produce the show too? Well, great. Maybe instead of a tribute to The Sound Of Music or Chicago, we can have a set of clips about the importance of football in film. Or Nascar. Let’s forget about all the years that Hollywwod wore the AIDS ribbons and try to find some themes that are more bro-friendly. Like buying a six-pack and getting girls pregnant in the back of your pickup truck. You know, Art!,/i>!!
/catty mode off>
Really? The one group who has stuck by this show through thick and thin? The part of the ratings demographic that you can always count on?
🙂
Let’s not fuss.
/catty mode initiated>
Gay people are not loyal to the Oscars because a couple of gay guys produce it. Gay people are loyal to the Oscars in spite of the way this klutzy team have tried to turn the Oscars into a sloppy burlesque show for 3 years in a row.
Believe me, I know gay community esprit de corps and supportive camaraderie. I also know that I’ve sat through dozens of gay shows in dozens of gays venues, and even if a gay audience will laugh at an unfunny kitschy crapfest, they know an unfunny kitschy crapfest when they see it. I know that being gay does not instantly confer the magic fairy-godmother gay wand of the spirit of Tommy Tune upon every gay guy who knows how to toss a scarf, suck in his cheeks, and snap his fingers. There are as many lowbrow gay men as there are lowbrow straight men (percentage-wise). The current (chronic?) team of producers tilts toward lowbrow. They’re practically vaudevillian.
I’ve seen all kinds of Oscar broadcasts. I’ve seen Oscars that had genuine style and (less frequently) Oscars with grace. I’ve seen lots of Oscar nights that were thudding bores. And then I’ve seen Oscar nights larded up with moments of empty flash and moments of shocking trash. Most of what I’ve seen from Zadan and Meron had been the empty flash and shocking trash variety.
The opening number this year was a knockout and I raved about it like a dizzy giddy idiot on twitter that night. But then, suddenly, abruptly, after the first 10 minutes it fizzled into embarrassment. Later on, Lady Gaga’s Sound of Music medley was inspired. Fantastic. But I think we deserve more than 15 memorable minutes out of a 3-hour program.
Couple of other things we know. We know gay audiences know quality and they they don’t need a show to be gay in order to enjoy it. And we know this: Zadan and Meron are not the only two gay producers in Hollywood. If there’s some warped idea at the Academy that nobody can produce an Oscar show who’s not gay, is it not possible to find any gay producers who are closer to 35 years old than 65? Surely there are some 30-something gay people in LA who know how to put on a show. (NeverTooEarlyMP, let’s you and I go find them! We’ll scout out somebody fresh, I have no doubt.)
This year’s glamwreck was mostly a failure. These guys have fumbled the climatic night of awards season the past 3 years. I’ve run out of patience waiting for them to get 20 consecutive minutes to run gracefully.
To me, it’s almost macabre that the Board of Governors might think: “harumph, well, we gotta keep the gays happy, so let’s be sure to gay things up as much as possible (and still keep things strictly neutered) so the only way we can keep the gay core audience is lure them with gay hosts and childish jokes about balls and yeah, let’s throw in the Gay Men’s Chorus one year and then make the host run around in his panties! yeah! that’s the only way to hold the attention of a gay audience: be sleazy (but, you know, sleazy in a sanitized antiseptic way).”
It’s insulting. It’s classless and cheap. It panders to a blundering straight concept of what straight people think the gays want to see. It threatens to turn the Oscars into a Gay Minstrel Show. (but, you know, carefully coded, so as not to offend the boyfriends and husbands of all the women who watch the Oscars too).
They tried it this way. They gave it a go. They threw in all the gay cliches in the Gay Cliche Handbook, and it’s not working. It’s just not working. The ratings are bottoming out, everybody is complaining, even the Academy VIPs are reportedly furious.
So they’re trying to “fix” the Oscars by futzing around with Best Picture some more, when the real problem is not with the balloting or the movies — it’s this big dumb show that costs probably 25 million bucks to mount and is built around a paper-thin joke that most 9-year-olds would be ashamed to make their 3rd grade class sit through.
What sort of producer cannot see that that “secret prediction box” skit was a 3-hour road to nowhere? Are these guys so gay that they think anything that a halfway sexy gay guy does is bound to be cute? Well, they’re wrong. They need to quit with the gay crush on NPH, let him put his pants back on, and give him something intelligent and witty to say. Instead of fawning over him like he’s their 42-yr-old boytoy.
I picture Zadan and Meron pawing NPH the same way Clay Shaw and David Ferrie groped Kevin Bacon in JFK.
I’m tired of it. It’s not getting better; it’s getting worse. They’re not learning from their mistakes; they’re being rewarded for their mistakes. Their mistakes are being reinforced.
Again, the Dolby Theater is filled with 1000 of the finest writers and producers in Los Angeles, but the framework of the show comes off like really lavish episode of Men on Films.
I’m just so bored with this tone they’ve adopted. Worse, I’m embarrassed by it. I watched the Oscars this year with some really very gay-friendly guys but, yeesh, I was feeling ashamed to be associated with the lame innuendo and chemically castrated gay host.
Nice stage sets though. Whoever is designing the sets, let them produce and direct the whole show.
(uh-oh… I think the button to deactivate my /catty mode> is stuck. Again.)
“I’m going to get in big trouble with the Gay Mafia”
Yes. Yes you are. I’ve already added your name to next month’s agenda. 😉
I’ll try to stick to the non-catty answer that I was originally going to give, though, which is that what they really need is to find somebody — almost anybody — who will be willing to sign up for a multi-year gig. Whether we love or hate Billy Crystal, or even Johnny Carson, it’s probably not because of one year, much less their first year, but rather because they became a tradition.
I’m not saying that it has to be a decades long commitment. But even a three-year contract with someone would really change the way they get graded. It gives them time to get more comfortable with the format, lets them take in the feedback and adjust, lets them build up some momentum, etc. MacFarlane was probably my least favorite of recent years, but if they’d kept him for a while then maybe he’d grow on me. Maybe he’d redeem himself. Or maybe WE would all learn and adjust and understand his humor more.
I think it’s become a structural problem in a different sense than what others have mentioned: They’ve come to treat the host as a temporary worker, instead of a partner. And as a result, it’s easy to throw each host under the bus at the end of their stint. It’s not that nobody can withstand the internet backlash that’s become a regular part of Oscar night. It’s that nobody can withstand that if they’re only there for one year. Hell, even congressmen get two year terms, and they consistently get worse reviews than James Franco did!
Yes, Lily – Colbert. In full character, though.
Octavia Spencer.
I know this is a fantasy…..but…..how about we have Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki host next year? They haven’t ever done anything of this sort before……but they are great at handling audiences, as is evident by their success at the ‘Salute to Supernatural’ conventions.
Lotsa sick institutions made up of otherwise wonderful people. I would have been proud of Harris, and the presenters, if they had boycotted.
I like Harris, a lot, but he hosted like he was wearing a shock collar…. which, of course, he was. I think it hurt him, not necessarily forever, he looked weak. Not a weak character but personally weak.
I like Harris, a lot, but he hosted like he was wearing a shock collar…. which, of course, he was. I think it hurt him, not necessarily forever, he looked weak. Not a weak character but personally weak.
this is all kinds of brilliant, Bob.
its been 10 days and I’m only now beginning to see how Oscar Night was such an inevitable end to the trashy melodrama of the whole nasty season.
“How can you be so calm?”
“What are my other choices?”
“But aren’t you scared of being humiliated?”
“Ha ha, it won’t be the first time I’ve been humiliated.”
“Of course it won’t.”
“… ? … you’re an asshole.”
ahaha, and all of Hollywood giggled with a wink and a nudge. heehee, actors allowing themselves to be humiliated! so funny! so true!
yes, all the NON-actors in the Academy really got a big kick out of the movie that finally dared to be honest about the “humiliating” profession of acting. All the guilds, all the producers, all the directors recognize this very funny fact of the acting profession: it’s basically about taking these giant egos and publically “humiliating” them. (?)
so all the guilds in all the branches in all the categories vote a big YES for the movie that ridicules actors.
it wins everything. except the star goes home with no SAG Award. no BAFTA. and he goes home with no Oscar.
Every other acting nominee all night long looked genuinely UNSURE if they would win. All but one. One guy looked like he knew he was guaranteed to be crowned king of the Oscars. When the writers won, the cinematographer won, the director won — the star looked more and more confident.
it was all so meta, wasn’t it? So many layers of reality overlapping with so many layers of fabrication… right up till the climax of Oscar night: from the front row of the Dolby Theater, stepping confidently out onto the ledge, and finding nothing but empty abyss beneath his feet.
the good news: Keaton wasn’t overdue before (that was a silly myth) but he sure as hell is overdue now. the very next role he lands without falling on his face will win him an Oscar.
now he’s been properly humiliated. now he’s golden.
Neil Meron… Craig Zadan… I’m sorry, but who keeps hiring these queens?
I’m going to get in big trouble with the Gay Mafia, but seriously, let’s rethink this whole idea of having two gay guys produce the Oscars.
Look what the esteemed gay readers of AD have done to this comment page if you need any proof that gay guys are way too catty to be entrusted with making this grande Hollywood masquerade look good.
The gays will fuck your Hollywood hair right up and tell you that you look gorgeous and push you out on the red carpet with price-tags still dangling from your g-strings.
Did we learn NOTHING from the hideous reign of Dowager Empress Bruce Vilanch?
He seems to be pretty awful and heavy handed by most accounts though, Ryan.
Conan O’Brien or Stephen Colbert. Give one of them a shot.
Chappie. He’s friendly and easy to program.
For Oscar host and president:
Jon Stewart 2016!!!!
What this thread has proven – much like the 5 or 10 BP noms thread – is that everyone has differing opinions of what SHOULD be. No one is ever going to be the “best” or “great enough” for all. People champion Billy Crystal as tops. Others thought he was old hat 3 yrs. ago. I’ve read that Ellen was great, Ive read that shes stale. I’ve read that Steve Martin was clearly best. I’ve read that he was awful. I’ve read that Seth Mcfarlane is awesome, I’ve read how tasteless he was. Etc etc. I don’t think there is a correct choice.
I love Louis CK more than anybody in showbiz right now, but he would not be a good choice for the Oscars.
The BEST choice for hosting the Oscars (though they still need a few years to get more famous) would be KEY & PEELE.
Neil Patrick Harris was simply not good. On par with the badness of Hathaway&Franco and Baldwin&Martin. Ellen was the best in recent memory.
My dream scenario for next year:
5 best picture nominees
Steve Martin & Tina Fey host
THE HONORARY OSCARS GO BACK TO THE SHOW!!!!!!
Billy was awful in 2012.
I didn’t hate Seth as much as everybody else did, but that boobs thing was tasteless.
I simply don’t respond to Ellen’s humor. I always feel as if she repeats the same joke again and again and again and does it really slowly.
NPH could have rocked but he needed more material. He’s a charmer.
I don’t get Whoopi. She has her moments, but she’s a bit too vulgar.
I loved Steve Martin. BEST OSCAR HOST!
Alec Baldwin was awful. Sorry, next to Martin his delivery was awful by comparison.
Jon Stewart – I don’t know about you, but I liked him a lot.
To me the best possible solution would be STEVE & TINA.
I’m starting a superpac to lobby for Paddy to host next year. First time “btch plz” is ever shouted on TV in response to an award. They’ll be talkin about it for yeeaarrs. Ratings thru da roof, MF.
I’d make sure also to take the celeb-bashing jokes up a notch and straight up just call them all cunts. There’d probably be nudity too. And an exercise in seeing just how many n-words I can say on network TV before getting pulled off air. And a campaign to retrospectively give every Oscar in history to Bela Tarr and Anna Nicole Smith. And Lady Bunny would co-host.
Nothing less, I mean it. I won’t get out of bed for less than $10 you bitches!
Always loved Billy Crystal.
Whoopi did great.
Steve Martin, too.
Hugh Jackman was agreeable.
Ellen did a more-than-decent job last year.
Seth Macfarlane … Wrong crowd.
Anne and James … A misfire.
NPH … Started strong, fizzled a bit, awful magic trick.
Its gotta by a hard, HARD show to host. I really think Tina and Amy could nail it. They’re comedians. They know when to hit and when to cut back. Having said that, I thought they were curiously lackluster during this latest GG.
Nearly 2 weeks on, i’m sitting on the fence on NPH. I thought he started really well; perfectly suited to the sort of razzle that Billy Crystal brought to life on half a dozen telecasts. But yes, the prediction box was just a lead weight, right from the set up, through the interminable checkins and build up. Payoff? Nada.
On paper he is a good choice, but the mood of the room (which is all he has to go on) is the biggest obstacle. His covering up his nerves and cool response with a self congratulatory grin perhaps is what has left audiences with a sense of failure, as it made him look awkward and unfunny. Shame about that, as he has shown elsewhere that he has the goods to deliver. I’d book Tina and Amy for the rest of time….. Bob Hope was not a movie star; at least Tina and Amy have careers across the mediums and are always hilarious,. Perhaps on their own they would not be. But together – magic.
Craig Ferguson would be awesome.
Agree – the writing made me feel like I was being played by a vacuum cleaner salesman. Harris was obviously uncomfortable (probably from the negativity in the room – they aren’t dummies), so the screwups began.
“hire a naturally sharp but relatively inoffensive host”
OR
I’m starting a superpac to lobby for Paddy to host next year. First time “btch plz” is ever shouted on TV in response to an award. They’ll be talkin about it for yeeaarrs. Ratings thru da roof, MF.
I might be stupid, but thought that NPH was one of the best host I’ve seen in the Oscars.
I mean, looking back, even Billy Crystal was criticized… I thought he was more than OK, way better than James Franco & Anne Hathaway and miles over David Letterman or John Stewart…
I’d have Steve Martin, NPH or Whoopi hosting again, anytime.
Neil Patrick Harris made some stupid mistakes, most notably mispronouncing David Oyelowo’s name. But the fault lies largely with the producers, and Harris highlights this himself:
It’s so difficult for one who’s simply watching the show to realize just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation has gone into almost every single thing. Every joke. Wording of joke. Placement of joke. Canceling of joke. Embellishment for just one line.
They need to grow the fuck up and stop the censorship. Don’t be afraid to offend. lbr, the Golden Globes hosts get away with saying just about anything they like; hire a naturally sharp but relatively inoffensive host and ditch all the stultifying procedure that goes into the writing process.
Seth MacFarlane was wrong for the event. Ellen DeGeneres was let down by a poorly-structured show. Neil Patrick Harris ought to have been right, but he was let down by bland writing. Let’s not forget, though, that he was credited as one of the official writers, so if it’s anyone’s fault, he’s definitely in the running. At the very least, he should have vetoed that risible prediction box thing. That was an all-time Oscar ceremony low imo.
It’s so difficult for one who’s simply watching the show to realize just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation, blah blah
nah, it’s not so difficult. Anyone with half a brain could smell the stink of ‘compromise’ right out of the gate when they made you shill for American Sniper for 5 minutes at the top of the show, especially the way you ’embellished’ that bullshit by doing a crass Sniper > Oprah comparison.
The ‘joke’ process is not so mysterious and ‘difficult’ to comprehend that we didn’t all instantly see right though it, Neil. Don’t kid yourself. We get it. Plug this, suck up to that. Tick every boring dreary box to make everybody ‘happy’
All the best cleverest writing talent in Los Angeles under one roof, and everything out of your mouth was a carefully polished hamster turd? Depressing.
@Chris Price,
you gave the best name possible, Louis CK! The best one for me was still McFarland because he doesn’t give a shit
Neil Patrick Harris was terrible. The last truly fun, exciting, and witty Oscar host was Seth MacFarlane, but everyone decided he was an terrible before he hosted so it didn’t work. Well, Ellen was a bore, too tame. I guess Tina and Amy are the way to go?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. LOUIS CK SHOULD HOST THE OSCARS. 1) He doesn’t give a shit. 2) He’s the funniest man on Earth right now. 3) He doesn’t give a shit.
I’m sorry, but Ellen and Hugh Jackman were not the best hosts. Ellen is so safe with her humor and often results to gimmicks (selfies, vacuuming, handing out scripts). She’s got a show to protect. And Hugh Jackman was not a comedian. These producers have to go, and the focus has to shift to the movies and the tradition of movies. How do you have a host who doesn’t bring attention to Ellar Coltrane and Richard Linklater or Damien Chazelle or the Sony hack or the huge flood of superhero movies?
Here are three examples of what make great hosts. You need comedians, but also people who come from the film industry. They can then land the jokes about industry players, the Hollywood news, the politics, the smear campaigns, things that shouldn’t be ignored at the biggest event of the year. And if something irritates a few audience members, you have to be able to bounce right back and call them out on it. I think these were the best hosts of the past 25 years.
1. Billy Crystal: What’s missing here is the standing ovation he got: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSMB4r5QmTg
Also, this segment was amazing, What the Stars were Thinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnkmMJrV0A8
2. Whoopi Goldberg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyJmYXb-b6U
Introducing each of the 5 Best Picture nominees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMjRm0DMbwI
3. Steve Martin: “What is a Movie Star?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwkn-vD1RvQ
some people really are bad at it though and he was one of them. they should never hire non-comedians. at least the comedians come with their own writers, and can usually make sure there’s a higher ratio of good jokes to bad. they can also think on their feet better. a professional comic would have known that box joke was just dead on arrival and to abandon it and not stick with it for the entire show.
There is a HUGE pressure on Oscar hosts. Some are born to do this, like Ellen or Hugh Jackman and some just don’t.
I truely believe a lot of stars have been asked if they host the Oscars and most of them said “No” because of the pressure to be good.
NPH was really trying and the beginning, his opening musical number was actually great. But then I felt he was loosing it. I don’t think he was bad at all, but he tried too much to be funny than actually being it.
It was not really helpful to let Octavia Spencer from all these people in the room look at his prediction box the whole show….
I had always been skeptical about NPH as an Oscar host. He’s an actor or a Broadway performer at best, the Tonys are his thing. Give the stage to Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, straight stand-up comedians who actually know how to handle a show like this, who thrive on improvising. And of course, enough with the current producers.
I thought MacFarlane was a better than average host at least… He at least tried to be funny and injected the show with his sense of humor. Ricky Gervais would be the best.
People blame Neil Patrick Harris but it’s the producers’ fault. These two men are responsible for three disrespectful and dreadful shows in a row and the Academy will probably hire them again. Am I the only one who believes that these two men fail to realize what the Oscars are about?! I don’t say that the shows should be all about history and tradition, but giving up on so much tradition and prestige to model the Oscars after the Grammys (when the Oscars the ULTIMATE SHOWBIZ AWARDS) is plain stupid and tasteless.
And yes, next year hire a comedy head writer!
Folks were way too hard on Neil Patrick Harris. Aside from the locked box joke I thought he did a wonderful job.
I usually defend the hosts, and I like Neil Patrick Harris, but I can’t defend someone who screws up FOUR presenters’ names. That’s the most basic thing of hosting. Know the people’s names. And the locked box thing was painful.
His opening video was fantastic though.