Anne Hathaway: Oscars’ host with James Franco.
The Oscars’ host: Anne Hathaway & James Franco combo the worst ever?
While on the Kodak stage on Feb. 27, this year’s Oscar host Anne Hathaway got to sing, tell jokes (“lesbians!”), and change gowns about two or three dozen times. Hathaway’s fellow Oscar host James Franco, who seemed to be having trouble staying awake, did his bit to keep TV viewers from dozing off by showing up in drag at one point.
Film critic Roger Ebert, for one, was unimpressed. On Twitter, he lambasted the show as “the worst Oscarcast I’ve seen, and I go back awhile. Some great winners, a nice distribution of awards, but the show? Dead. In. The. Water.”
Worst Oscar show ever?
Besides Roger Ebert, some media pundits have wondered if the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony – in large part thanks to hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco – was the worst on record. If so … what about the Allan Carr-produced 1989 telecast?
Highlights of the (Oscar host-less) show included the following:
- Rob Lowe rock and rolling with a Betty Boop-voiced Snow White (played by San Diego-born actress Eileen Bowman).
- A group of young actors performing the dance number “I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner,” in which the likes of Patrick Dempsey, Tyrone Power Jr., Ricki Lake, and others worshipped a giant-sized Oscar statue.
- Bob Hope jokes targeting imported Chilean grapes, Salman Rushdie, and the Warren Beatty–Dustin Hoffman box office bomb Ishtar.
Tropical mix nightmare
Regarding the Rob Lowe-Snow White segment, which at one point included Carmen Miranda-inspired dancers “dressed like tropical mixed drinks,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner TV critic Andy Klein wrote: “The whole production number resembled the sort of nightmare you might have after imbibing too many such drinks.”[1]
Regarding the Oscar show itself, Allan Carr claimed that then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, past Best Supporting Actress nominees Janet Leigh and Candice Bergen (who was a presenter), and 1943 Best Actress Academy Award winner and David O. Selznick widow Jennifer Jones loved it. “In my opinion,” Jones purportedly wrote Carr, “you produced the Gone with the Wind of the Oscar shows.”[2]
Embarrassment to Academy, motion picture industry
Be that as it may, 17 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members felt otherwise. They were:
Julie Andrews, David Brown, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards, John Foreman, William Friedkin, Larry Gelbart, Sidney Lumet, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Paul Newman, Alan J. Pakula, Gregory Peck, Martin Ritt, Mark Rydell, Peter Stone, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann.
In an official letter of complaint to the Board of Governors, the Academy 17 wrote:
The 61st Academy Awards show was an embarrassment to both the Academy and the entire motion picture industry. It is neither fitting nor acceptable that the best work in motion pictures be acknowledged in such a demeaning fashion. We urge the president and governors of the Academy to ensure that future award presentations reflect the same standard of excellence as that set by the films and filmmakers they honor.
Some of the Academy 17 are no longer with us. Here’s wondering what they would have thought of the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony.
I should add that the Allan Carr-produced ceremony – even if considered the most dismal ever – had no “Oscar host.” Theoretically, that means Anne Hathaway and James Franco could still be labeled the worst Oscar host combo ever.
The Cocoanut Grove
[1] Among the old-timers seen in the Cocoanut Grove segment are presenter Merv Griffin, Alice Faye, Dorothy Lamour, Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers (featured in the very first Best Picture Academy Award winner, Wings), Cyd Charisse and husband Tony Martin (formerly married to Alice Faye), Vincent Price and Coral Browne, and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
The Nicholas Brothers were to have taken part in the segment, but their participation was cut. Doris Day was to have made an appearance as well, but a swollen ankle prevented her from fulfilling her commitment.
Later on, 1930s and 1940s 20th Century Fox superstar Alice Faye (Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Hello Frisco Hello) publicly complained that the Cocoanut Grove number had been relegated to an afterthought and that her participation had been reduced to that of “a dress extra.”
The Walt Disney Company wasn’t too happy either, notifying the Academy that they had (mis)used Disney’s version of Snow White without their permission.
Janet Leigh, Jennifer Jones
[2] Janet Leigh was nominated for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). She lost to Shirley Jones in Richard Brooks’ Elmer Gantry.
Candice Bergen was nominated for Alan J. Pakula’s Starting Over (1979). She lost to Meryl Streep in Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer.
Jennifer Jones took home the Best Actress Oscar for Henry King’s The Song of Bernadette. She would be nominated four more times (Best Actress for Love Letters, 1945; Duel in the Sun, 1946; and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955; Best Supporting Actress for Since You Went Away, 1944).
Andy Klein quote and Jennifer Jones’ purported message via Mason Wiley and Damien Bona’s Inside Oscar.
The information about the Nicholas Brothers and Doris Day via Robert Hofler’s Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr.
Oscar host Anne Hathaway in Red Dress on Red Carpet image: John Selig | © A.M.P.A.S.
James Franco and Anne Hathaway: Oscar ratings down.
Oscar ratings down to one of lowest levels this century
The 2011 Oscar ratings were down 9 percent compared to last year, according to Nielsen results found at Deadline.com. In the much-coveted 18–49 age group, ratings were down 12 percent. (Citing preliminary Nielsen data, the Los Angeles Times reported a much more modest 2 percent drop for the 18–49 demo.)
This year’s Oscar show was hosted by former Spider-Man supporting player and Best Actor nominee James Franco (127 Hours) and by Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Dark Knight Rises actress Anne Hathaway – both frequently admired by movie critics, but overwhelmingly panned by TV critics for their joint Kodak Theatre performance this past Sunday.
Despite popular winners such as Best Actress Natalie Portman (Black Swan) and Best Original Score composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network), the James Franco-Anne Hathaway show attracted a relatively modest 37.6 million viewers – thus faring worse than all but three 21st-century Oscar telecasts:
- 2009 – Best Picture winner: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.
- 2008 – Best Picture winner: Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men.
- 2003 – Best Picture winner: Rob Marshall’s Chicago. It should be noted that the 2003 Oscar ceremony took place days after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Avatar Oscar ratings boost
It should also be noted that last year’s Oscar telecast had one definite advantage over this year’s. That’s James Cameron’s mammoth international blockbuster Avatar, which was in the running for Best Picture and eight other Academy Awards.
The much more modest The Hurt Locker, directed by Cameron’s former wife Kathryn Bigelow, was the eventual Best Picture winner.
This year’s biggest Oscar-nominated hits were Christopher Nolan’s sci-fier Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Jointly, these two movies grossed about as much as Avatar in the U.S. and Canada.
The 2011 Best Picture Oscar winner, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, is no commercial slacker either, having already taken in more than $108 million in North America. The period drama stars Best Actor winner Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, and veteran Claire Bloom (The Haunting, A Doll’s House).
James Franco asserts not ‘under the influence’ while hosting Oscar ceremony
James Franco explains to David Letterman that no, he wasn’t “under the influence” while co-hosting with Anne Hathaway the 2011 Oscar telecast last Feb. 27. The most recent Academy Awards ceremony was lambasted by television critics, failed to connect with TV audiences, and was considered by some to be one of the (many) nadirs of Oscar TV history. See James Franco chatting with David Letterman in the video below.
“I think I know why, because –,” James Franco says about the reasons for all those “was he high?” comments. “I love her, but Anne Hathaway is so energetic that I think the Tasmanian devil would look stoned standing next to Anne Hathaway.” Franco adds that “honestly, I played those lines as well as I could.”
Answering Letterman’s question, “What the hell do you care?” about all the pans he has received for his Oscar-hosting abilities, James Franco, a Best Actor nominee for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, replied:
I never dreamed of being, like, the best Oscar host ever. It was never on my list of things to do. It doesn’t mean I didn’t care, and it doesn’t mean I didn’t try hard, right?
But here’s the hypocritical thing. Leading up to the Oscars, I couldn’t hear enough about how “Oh, people don’t care about the Oscars anymore,” “It’s dead,” “It’s boring,” “It’s at the end of a long awards season, who cares about it?”
Well, as soon as you don’t host the way they want you to, they certainly care and they won’t shut up about it!
Bear in mind that some years ago David Letterman’s Oscar-hosting abilities weren’t exactly praised to the heavens, either.
Photo of Anne Hathaway and James Franco in drag as Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, on Sunday, Feb. 27 ’11: Michael Yada | © A.M.P.A.S.
2011 Oscar hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway image: Michael Yada | © A.M.P.A.S.
Anne Hathaway Oscar host: Red dress one of countless outfits
Pictured above is Oscar host Anne Hathaway sporting a blindingly bright white smile while on the 2011 Academy Awards’ Red Carpet just outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
But wait. In the photo, Hathaway is wearing a blindingly bright red gown. Wasn’t her dress of a metallic blue hue? Actually, no. It was beige (with patterns). Wait. Come to think of it, she actually wore a tux, not a dress.
Or maybe it was all of the above. And more.
How could that be?
Well, the color, texture, format, and type of Anne Hathaway’s outfits varied according to which 15 minutes of the Oscar telecast you watched on Sunday night, Feb. 27.
Hathaway, a Best Actress nominee for Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married in early 2009, was this year’s Oscar ceremony co-host alongside Best Actor nominee James Franco (for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours).
Scarlett Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson at the 83rd Academy Awards. Oscar 2011 co-host and Best Actor nominee James Franco (127 Hours) introduced Johansson and fellow presenter Matthew McConaughey: “I am six degrees of Kevin Bacon away from our next two presenters. Figure it out on the Internet.” Understandably, some felt that Franco was a more effective Oscar host online, where he tweeted some of the evening’s to-dos, than on the stage of the Kodak Theatre.
Scarlett Johansson image: Darren Decker | © A.M.P.A.S.
Jeremy Renner & Scarlett Johansson
Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (The Town) greets Scarlett Johansson on the Oscar 2011 Red Carpet. Scarlett Johansson wasn’t nominated for anything, but she and Matthew McConaughey presented the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, both of which went to Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson image: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Jennifer Lawrence.
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence was a first-time Best Actress Oscar nominee for Debra Granik’s drama Winter’s Bone, which provided Lawrence with her first major film role. Of note, Lawrence was the only first-timer among this year’s Best Actress Oscar contenders.
Jennifer Lawrence image: Richard Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
Christopher Nolan and wife Emma Thomas: Bypassed once again for the Best Director Oscar.
Christopher Nolan and wife Emma Thomas
Christopher Nolan, shortlisted as one of the producers of Best Picture Oscar nominee Inception and as the writer of the film’s original screenplay, arrives with his wife and fellow Inception producer Emma Thomas at the 2011 Academy Awards held on Feb. 27 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Nolan also directed Inception, but he was not included on the Oscars’ Best Director shortlist.
Christopher Nolan and wife Emma Thomas image: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Justin Timberlake on Oscars’ Red Carpet.
Justin Timberlake
The Social Network actor Justin Timberlake is pictured above as he arrives at the 83rd Academy Awards. At the ceremony, Timberlake and Black Swan actress Mila Kunis introduced the nominees – and eventual winners – in the animation categories. Throughout the proceedings, he pretended to be the elusive Banksy, whose Exit Through the Gift Shop was a Best Documentary Feature contender.
The joke fell mostly flat, but Timberlake actually elicited some laughs when he imitated three-time Oscar-nominated veteran Kirk Douglas,[1] who mercilessly stretched the Best Supporting Actress announcement into what seemed like hours.
Justin Timberlake photo on the Oscars’ Red Carpet: Greg Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
Todd Lieberman and wife Heather Lieberman on the Oscars’ Red Carpet.
Todd Lieberman
Todd Lieberman and wife Heather Lieberman arrive at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony. Lieberman – whose producing credits include Wild Hogs (2007), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), and Anne Fletcher’s The Proposal (2009) – is one of the producers of The Fighter, one of this year’s Best Picture nominees.
Todd Lieberman and Heather Lieberman Red Carpet image: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Lucy Walker and singer and composer Moby of the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Waste Land.’
Lucy Walker and Moby
Waste Land director Lucy Walker, whose film was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, is pictured above with singer and composer Moby on the 83rd Academy Awards’ Red Carpet. This year’s winner in the Best Documentary Feature category was Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job, about the roots of the 2008 global economic meltdown.
(When Ferguson accepted the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award for Inside Job, he remarked that none of those responsible for the global economic crisis – the worst since the Great Depression – had gone to jail.)
Moby composed the music for Waste Land. He was a Grammy nominee in 2002.
Oscar 2011 co-nominee Angus Aynsley produced Waste Land, which tells the story of artist Vik Muniz and the waste pickers at Jardim Gramacho, located in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, and one the world’s largest open-air landfills.*
* Update: Jardim Gramacho was shut down in 2012.
Lucy Walker and singer Moby image: Ivan Vejar | © A.M.P.A.S.
Film editor Kirk Baxter and guest on the Oscars’ Red Carpet.
Oscar-winning film editor Kirk Baxter
Pictured above is film editor Kirk Baxter arriving with a guest at the 83rd Academy Awards. Baxter and Angus Wall shared the 2011 Best Film Editing Oscar for their work on The Social Network.
Kirk Baxter image: Richard Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, Barney’s Version make-up artists.
Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse
Adrien Morot, an Oscar nominee in the Best Make-Up category for his work on Barney’s Version, and the film’s prosthetics shop coordinator Kathy Tse are seen on the 2011 Oscars’ Red Carpet outside the Kodak Theatre. The Best Make-Up nomination was the sole Oscar nod Barney’s Version scored.
Directed by Richard J. Lewis, Barney’s Version features Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver, and several cameos by well-known Canadian filmmakers, among them Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, and Denys Arcand.
Besides Adrien Morot for Barney’s Version, the 2011 Oscars’ Best Make-Up contenders were:
- Eventual winners Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for The Wolfman.
- Edouard F. Henriques, Greg Funk, and Yolanda Toussieng for The Way Back.
Adrien Morot’s other movie credits include The Child Prodigy, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Death Race, 300, and The Fountain.
Photo of Barney’s Version make-up artists Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse: Richard Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
Jacki Weaver.
Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver
Jacki Weaver, one of this year’s Best Supporting Actress Academy Award contenders, is seen above arriving at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre. Weaver was shortlisted for her work in David Michôd’s crime drama Animal Kingdom. As expected, the eventual winner was Melissa Leo for David O. Russell’s The Fighter.
Jacki Weaver has been a well-known actress in Australia for nearly four decades. She has already won two Australian Film Institute Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Caddie (shared, in 1976) and Best Actress for Animal Kingdom.
Best Supporting Actress nominee Jacki Weaver image: Richard Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
Denis Villeneuve, director of Best Foreign Language Film nominee ‘Incendies,’ and guest.
Denis Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve, whose Incendies was an Oscar nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category, is seen above on the 83rd Academy Awards’ Red Carpet, just outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Incendies lost to Susanne Bier’s In a Better World (Denmark).
The other competitors for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar were Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth (Greece), Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful (Mexico), and Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law (Algeria).
Denis Villeneuve image: Darren Decker | © A.M.P.A.S.
Susanne Bier.
Susanne Bier
Susanne Bier, whose In a Better World won the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, on the Oscar 2011 Red Carpet. Bier was only the third woman director to take home the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Her predecessors were Marleen Gorris for Antonia’s Line (1995) and Caroline Link for Nowhere in Africa (2002).
Susanne Bier Oscar Red Carpet image: Richard Harbaugh | © A.M.P.A.S.
notes
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.) website.
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