At the very least, this sounds more promising than an awards show hosted by reality TV stars.Hugh Jackman, probably the only Tony Award-winner to be named People's "Sexiest Man Alive," will host this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Yep, it's an odd pick. The last few Oscar night hosts have been comedians (Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Rock), but something tells me this broadcast will be the funniest in years.
Why? Because Hugh Jackman likes to sing. And dance. And he usually looks pretty silly when he does those things at the same time, like in that episode of Viva Laughlin.
There's no real guarantee that Jackman will strain his pipes and put on his dancing shoes for Oscar night, but the team behind Dreamgirls is overseeing the show. There's little doubt that producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark will ignore Jackman's Broadway musical past. Condon already said the show will move away from the usual film clip retrospectives to offer more live entertainment. That means the chance of Jackman getting his song-and-dance on seems very, very likely.
I feel for all those X-Men-loving kids out there who'll tune in to see Wolverine but find something like this instead:
Oh. The. Horror. But funny, no?
The Oscars will be broadcast live Feb. 22 on ABC.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-12-2008 @ 10:50PM
royce said...
The Oscar's have gotten stale. No one really watches it anymore. I'm fine with them trying something else. It's not like they're letting Whoopi host it again or something like that.
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12-12-2008 @ 10:50PM
Ellen said...
What a jejeune piece. Hugh Jackman is a multi-talented performer who happened to be the best thing about VIVA LAUGHLIN. That was a stylized series, by the way, which utilized musical numbers in a surreal way. His "Sympathy for the Devil" cameo was not horrible or funny; it set the tone for that devilish character. Jackman was an award-winning musical theater performer for several years before adding film actor to his resume. Variety's William Goldman called his performance in Broadway's THE BOY FROM OZ one of the most remarkable he'd ever seen. I realize that you likely don't value time-honored theatrical traditions because they don't include explosions or ccar chases. I suggest you don't put down what you don't understand or are too uninformed about to appreciate. He will assuredly be a fantastically good host, at least to those with a broader appreciation of culture than you seem to manifest.
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12-12-2008 @ 10:50PM
bob-o said...
three cheers for ELLEN! as i cannot say the exact same things nearly so eloquently, allow me to say "i second that emotion" and i am actually looking forward to the oscars now. (though i would have liked another round of jon stewart or ricky gervais.)
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12-13-2008 @ 3:58AM
Saya said...
Wonderful! Might actually make them worth paying attention to instead of intending to and then end up surfing the net or reading a book through the whole thing... He's done a great job on the Tony's - second only to the year Bernadette Peters and Gregory Hines cohosted...
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12-13-2008 @ 3:20AM
Rodney said...
OK, I'm confused: "There's little doubt that producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark will ignore Jackman's Broadway musical past." So you're saying that they will ignore it?
Or perhaps you mean "There's little CHANCE that producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark will ignore Jackman's Broadway musical past."
Or even "There's little doubt that producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark will TAKE ADVANTAGE OF Jackman's Broadway musical past."
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12-13-2008 @ 11:39AM
Mike Moody said...
Oye. That's what I get for making fun of Hugh Jackman.
12-13-2008 @ 11:17PM
Jude said...
I haven't watched the Tony Awards since Hugh Jackman hosted them. He is an excellent choice as host, whether or not he's singing and dancing.
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