Jon Stewart to Host Oscars*Update*Mixed Reviews for Oscar Performance
source: nytimes.com
Quote:
January 5, 2006 Jon Stewart to Host Oscars
By REUTERS Filed at 4:03 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As the clock ticks ever closer to the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally found a host in Jon Stewart.
Sources confirmed Stewart's selection, which was reported Wednesday evening by the Los Angeles Times' Oscar watch site, http://theenvelope.latimes.com. An Academy spokesman declined comment.
The assignment would represent the first Oscar-hosting spot for Stewart, who headlines Comedy Central's ``The Daily Show.'' Stewart does have black-tie experience, though, having hosted the Grammy Awards in 2001 and 2002.
Oscarcast producer Gil Cates' choice of a host had become the subject of mounting suspense in Hollywood. Chris Rock, last year's host, was not asked to reprise the role. Reportedly, Billy Crystal, who has hosted eight times, turned down the honor. Speculation also had centered on such other previous hosts as Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
__________________
And I am nothing of a builder, but here I dreamt I was an architect
And I built this balustrade to keep you home, to keep you safe from the outside world
I wasn't planning on watching the oscars this year, but I'm willing to reconsider now that he's going to host it.
__________________
And I am nothing of a builder, but here I dreamt I was an architect
And I built this balustrade to keep you home, to keep you safe from the outside world
I had been hoping for Ellen DeGeneres after Billy Crystal turned down, I think she's a great host at the Emmys, so why not upgrade her to oscars.
But I'm happy with Jon Stewart, even though I'd rather see Billy Crystal.
First-time host Jon Stewart drew mixed reviews for his Oscar performance, with Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper giving him two thumbs up and the Washington Post's Tom Shales urging him to "keep your 'Daily' job."
Some pundits predicted going into the live ABC telecast that Stewart, America's leading anti-establishment comic as star of cable TV's satiric newscast "The Daily Show," might prove too provocative for Hollywood's biggest insider event.
But if anything, Stewart's harshest critics after the show judged him dull, while those cheering his performance said he managed to strike just the right tone, comparing him to one of the favorite Oscar hosts of years past, Johnny Carson.
In one of the most scathing early reviews late on Sunday, Tom Shales of the Washington Post said he found it "hard to believe that professional entertainers could have put together a show less entertaining than this year's Oscars, hosted with a smug humorlessness by comic Jon Stewart, a sad and pale shadow of great hosts gone by."
His column ran under the headline: "Memo to Jon Stewart: Keep Your 'Daily' Job."
Associated Press Update 2: Review: Stewart Disappoints As Oscars Host By FRAZIER MOORE , 03.06.2006, 09:39 AM
You would have been more amused Sunday night if you'd revved up your TiVo and played back an evening's worth of "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" reruns while you tracked Oscar winners on the Web.
Stewart, usually a very funny guy, displayed a lack of beginner's luck as first-time host of "The 78th Annual Academy Awards," which ABC aired live from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
His usually impeccable blend of puckishness and self-effacement fell flat in the service of Oscar. But he wasn't alone. The rest of the broadcast was largely bland and by-the-numbers.
Couldn't presenter Russell Crowe have departed from his script and clobbered someone (even Stewart) with a telephone, just to jazz things up?
Thank goodness for the occasional attempt at cleverness, as when the presenters for Best Makeup arrived on stage in foolishly awful makeup: Will Ferrell scarlet-faced and Steve Carell corpse-pale.
And in a funny bit, Tom Hanks demonstrated the Academy's new strategy for speeding up acceptance speeches. Onstage musicians not only surrounded him but physically assaulted him to keep it brief.
Wait, this wasn't too far from the truth. From the instant each Oscar recipient began speaking, the orchestra's mewling Lite-FM assault began stepping on the winner's remarks, as if to play them offstage before they'd even opened their mouths. It was distracting and obnoxious, and undercut what are, potentially, the night's grandest moments.
Also irksome: a prevailing message through the broadcast preaching that movies should be seen on the big screen of a movie house, presumably at full ticket price. (Remember, DVDs: bad.)
The broadcast began on a shaky note with a filmed intro that found past Oscar host Billy Crystal being introduced as this year's host, then declining, followed by Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Mel Gibson, even Mr. Moviephone - none of whom wanted the gig.
That seemed to leave it to Stewart by default. Maybe it's come to this.
Sure, he's an outsider - a New York-based comic and TV personality. The sort of star who reminded the audience that "tonight is the night we celebrate excellence in film - with ME, the fourth male lead from 'Death to Smoochy.'"
But as the night wore on, Stewart proved too deferential, too nice and too obvious in his targets.
His biggest monologue laugh: In reference to the swan dress that singer Bjork wore to the 2001 Oscars, Stewart announced gravely that she wouldn't be on hand this year: She "was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her." Tiresome squared.
Late in the broadcast, the flashy, high-amp hip-hop number "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" surely roused any dozing viewers. And once Three 6 Mafia members Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard had received their Oscars for Original Song, Stewart got a big laugh by observing, "I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp."
But more typical were Stewart's misfires, one of which he tried to recover from in a desperate way unworthy of him: "I am a loser," he declared.
Not true. He's really funny. The many millions of Oscarcast viewers unfamiliar with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" should tune in and see. If they do, that will make Stewart the biggest winner from Oscar night.
__________________ if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid
side-by-side,
piece-by-piece,
and turned into a castle for some towering queen
Despite being called one of those "cynical east coast comedians" (whatever critic said that), I felt Jon Stewart fit in way better at the Oscars than Chris Rock ever could. Besides the fact that many of those A-listers in the audience have been on his show and laughed at his hilarity.
He did good!
__________________ I just got up. I don't cheer when I just got up.
the most uncomfortable moment I saw was a cut to Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams who were not laughing at all poor Jon Stewart, I really do think he is hilarious!
__________________ if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid
side-by-side,
piece-by-piece,
and turned into a castle for some towering queen
I think he did a brilliant job - especially considering the constraints put on him. I do think, however, that his ad-libs were the best part of the evening. Come on, he was brilliant after Three 6 Mafia won
__________________
There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.
~Madeleine Albright
Last edited by Hipkitten : 06-03-2006 at 11:40 AM.
This just might actually get me to watch them.
poor Jon Stewart, I really do think he is hilarious!
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