And the Oscars go to... Billy Crystal!

Editorial

After the flurry of resignations and pullouts last week, thanks to Brett Ratner and his inappropriate comments during a couple of interviews, the Academy Awards are once again in safe hands, with Billy Crystal stepping up to host next year’s ceremony. Thank goodness.

While it’s not going to change the course of history, or even matter to many people – it’s more of a First World Problem really – it is a relief that we won’t have to endure egomaniac Eddie Murphy’s attempts to be funny and cool. And we won’t have to sit uncomfortably through another awkward train wreck as the Academy try to ‘mix it up’ with new talent and formats.

Crystal is a seasoned Oscars host. He has a genuinely funny and self-deprecating style that honours and takes the piss out of the awards at the same time. The last time he hosted was in 2004, and it was the year of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won just about every award. And Crystal, clear and sharp as ever, knew how to make the most of that with plenty of quips about New Zealand. It was a big year: Sean Penn won Best Actor for Mystic River, Charlize Theron won Best Actress for Monster, Finding Nemo won Best Animation, and our own Adam Elliot’s Harvie Krumpet won Best Short Animation, and won much more kudos for thanking his ‘beautiful boyfriend Dan’ in his acceptance speech.

But Crystal always comes up with the goods, especially in his opening, whether it’s a montage of parody clips, or a song-and-dance routine sending up the nominated films – something Hugh Jackman tried to emulate in 2009. The only other host in recent years that has been as successful is Whoopi Goldberg, but the last time she hosted was in 2001.

Since Crystal’s last gig, we’ve had other hosts, with various degrees of success, including Chris Rock, Jon Stewart (twice), Ellen DeGeneres, Jackman, Alec Baldwin with Steve Martin, and this year’s duo James Franco and Anne Hathaway. These efforts were all met with mixed responses, and I reckon that’s because no one these days can really hold a candle to Crystal. Even his Twitter announcement, “Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward to the show”, sets the tone, already.

I am a little scared though. Have you seen him recently? He’s 63 now, which is no problem, but he looks like he’s been bitten by the Hollywood botox bug. Those characteristic jowls and cheeky/sad eyes have disappeared, and replaced with a slightly shiny, permanently surprised, or maybe bemused, look.

I just hope his delivery and hosting skills have not had a similar makeover. Because it’s Crystal’s untempered and acerbic wit that we love. If the Academy tamper with that, there’ll be trouble indeed.

Tim Hunter, Citysearch