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Academy Announces Return of ‘One of the Greatest Hosts in Oscar History’

Nov 11, 2011  •  Post A Comment

After losing Eddie Murphy as host of the upcoming 84th Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced that Billy Crystal will return to host the show.

Murphy announced he was off the telecast soon after the departure of producer Brett Ratner amid a controversy over an anti-gay slur, as previously reported.

Ratner was replaced by Brian Grazer, who will co-produce the broadcast with Don Mischer.

Said Mischer: “With Billy, we’re moving forward with one of the greatest hosts in Oscar history. His return to the Oscars is, in a sense, a celebration.”

Crystal will be hosting the Oscars for the ninth time — second all time to Bob Hope, who hosted 19 times between 1940 and 1978.

Crystal, whose last turn as host was in 2004, confirmed the assignment, saying: “Some of the best moments of my career have happened on the Oscar stage. I am thrilled to be back there. Actually, I am doing this so that the young woman in my pharmacy will stop asking me my name when I pick up my prescriptions.”

The ceremony is set for Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, to be broadcast live on ABC.

billy-crystal.jpg

Billy Crystal

4 Comments

  1. Glad he’s back.

  2. You’re Billy Crystal.
    You’ve just come to the rescue of your hapless pals at the Motion Picture Academy, who have honored their annual obligation to remind the world just how preposterously unqualified the organization is to be in charge of the world’s biggest TV show.* Usually, that reminder comes in the form of the show itself; this year, the Academy was able to cross that item off its To Do list before Thanksgiving.
    It was on that show, in your eight previous turns as Host, that you were the most memorable, most quoted, most entertaining single component. ABC’s eastern time zone affiliates–and their pajama-clad late news teams–still hate the 19-hour running time, but you make it fun, or at least, not cringeworthy.
    (Rob Lowe’s standing behind The Log right now, isn’t he? Dammit.)
    For good measure, on those eight evenings in the job that Bob Hope invented and Johnny Carson reinvented, you redefined not just the role of “Host, Academy Awards” but set the template that other awards shows consult.
    In your on-and-off open relationship with the Academy, you have been–even in your off years–the kind of “ex” everyone in Hollywood wishes they had: one without a single catty thing to say about the new flame, no matter how much of a Trophy partner they were.
    (James Franco’s over The Log’s left shoulder right now, isn’t he? Dammit.)
    You have spent your entire adult life in an industry that throws off superlatives like Paris Hilton throws off boyfriends. A TV show isn’t just new, it’s “the new hit series”–before its premiere.
    And yet, with your cavalry-style late-in-the-game save, your friend, the president of the Academy, still wants some wiggle room, a clear path to the exit, a car waiting at the curb, a concussion grenade at the ready. And he deploys it: in thanking and praising you for rescuing an organization that couldn’t find 11:00 PM (ET) with both hands and a road map, he calls you “…one of the greatest hosts in Oscar history.”
    Did you see what he did there? “One of” the greatest. There are, apparently, others breathing down your neck.
    You’re Billy Crystal.
    And you have a problem.
    Back to work:

  3. Sorry: forgot to decode the *:
    * = not a Nielsen statistic. Just a widely-
    accepted, unverifiable common belief
    NOW, back to work:

  4. Sorry: forgot to decode the *:
    * = not a Nielsen statistic. Just a widely-
    accepted, unverifiable common belief
    NOW, back to work:

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