TV Eye
Go for the Gold
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., Feb. 25, 2011
It's finally here – the biggest and oldest Hollywood prom of them all, the Academy Awards. Its show runners have made some significant changes to the same old, same old we've come to expect, most noticeably with the up-and-coming co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco. According to Gregg Kilday in The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar producers have also dispensed with the traditional stand-alone set (moveable, of course, for those lavish dance numbers many of us love to hate). In keeping with the idea that this is an awards show honoring film (i.e., the moving image), the "set" will instead include a series of projections, allowing for constantly changing looks. And to think it only took 83 years to come up with this idea.
Academy Awards show producers Don Mischer and Bruce Cohen explained what they have in mind: "We're doing six or seven scenic transitions during the show, but they are each sort of a different concept. In other words, one might be a scene from a film, one might be a more specific time in history, one might be a specific event, one might be a specific genre."
By putting two of the youngest hosts in Oscar history front and center, the producers are clearly banking on Hathaway's and Franco's charm and accessibility to be "audience surrogates for the journey" through wonderland. Hmmm. I just like the idea that they're both poised but still able to do a pratfall, as the telecast's promos have demonstrated.
Personally, I've always liked Hathaway. I know some derisively call her Julia Roberts- or Sandra Bullock-lite, but gosh darn it, I like her. I really like her! I liked her the first time I saw her on some now-forgotten late-night talk show when she was promoting The Princess Diaries, her first big movie role. She obviously hadn't been properly coached on how a woman should sit when appearing on a TV talk show (with legs crossed or held together demurely knee-to-toe, heels pulled toward the chair, legs slanted to one side). Instead, she sat with her knees pinched together, her long calves splayed away from each other in a way that looked both comical and painful, like a newborn, wobbly legged pony – which, media-career-wise, she was. You could tell the director was ordering quick cutaways from the wide shots to close-ups and two-shots, perhaps hoping that the girl would cross her legs already. Not a chance. That little pony's legs would not budge.
I liked Hathaway even more the year she sang on the Oscar telecast. A few more years had passed, adding a few more films to her résumé. She was better groomed then, more put-together. But when Shirley MacLaine gave her some props from stage after Hathaway's performance, she gushed like a big ole dork. And naturally, the camera was fixed on her. In close-up.
"I love you!" you could see her mouth to MacLaine, lurching forward in her seat, dropping all pretense of the evening. Again it seems another nervous director ordered a quick cutaway before we got a full blast of Hathaway's behavior unbecoming to a person wearing an evening gown. But it was too late. We got a peak at what must have been her inner, gangly girl. I, for one, couldn't get enough of it.
As for James Franco, I've adored him since his star turn in the short-lived Freaks and Geeks and have admired the direction in which he's taken his career. Like other critics, I'm not convinced his performance in 127 Hours is Oscar-worthy, but in a town that values good ole guys, his inclusion on Hollywood's prom court seems about right.
For a full list of nominees, background information, games, interviews, and more, a good place to begin is www.oscar.go.com. And you can find plenty of preshow hullabaloo on the cable networks. Check local listings.
The 83rd Annual Academy Awards presentation airs live, Sunday, Feb. 27, at 7pm on ABC.
