This really could go either way.
We are in the depths of awards season, with the big daddy of all the ceremonies set to take place on Sunday 24 February.
Kevin Hart had been lined up to take the job as host of the Oscars, but then promptly stepped down from the position once a series of homophobic tweets from his past resurfaced shortly after he was given the gig.
There had been rumours as to who might take his place, but on Wednesday night, Variety reported that for the first time since 1989, the Oscars ceremony will go ahead without a host.
According to the same report, the Oscars had apparently been ready to take Hart back as host if he had used his interview on Ellen as an opportunity to apologise, but things didn’t quite work out that way:
“The Academy had been considering welcoming Hart back if he had used the opportunity in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres to demonstrate contrition for his anti-gay jokes and recommit to hosting the show,” the Variety report reads.
“But his sit-down with DeGeneres, a sympathetic friend, backfired when he was made out to be the victim of internet trolls and ‘haters’ rather than the perpetrator of hateful remarks.”
So now, the Oscars will be looking to go for a more “variety show” vibe, with a number of A-listers coming out for short mini-hosting gigs, instead of one overall host.
The problem with that is that this would be the first time since 1989 that the Oscars went hostless, and that night also had a variety show vibe to it.
It resulted in one particular segment that featured Rob Lowe singing ‘Proud Mary’ with Snow White (?!?!?!?!), and essentially ruined the career of the producer (Allan Carr – the guy who produced Grease) of the ceremony.
Here is hoping this year’s goes a bit better…
Clip via DynapubsA
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