Think of your potential Oscar hosts in their former “Saturday Night Live” characters.
Fernando Lamas is in; Gumby and Mr. Robinson are out.
The best thing: Neither was James Franco or Anne Hathaway, who shared the duties for what was agreed to be the worst telecast in recent memory (and those two, to share another late night connection have each hosted “SNL”).
The saga behind the Oscar changes began earlier this week among the fallout of a bunch of offensive things the show’s chosen director had said, from banging Olivia Munn, as he put it, to his theory that rehearsals are gay.
He wasn’t long for the ceremony and resigned. Ratner had gotten his pal and star of his current bomb “Tower Heist” to host, but with no Ratner, there would be no Murphy either. He pulled out.
Then Brian Grazer, pal of Ron Howard and director of a number of things, was hired to do the Oscars and today, like a blast of the past, Billy Cystal was announced as the new host.
Well, actually, he tweeted the news first: “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.”
The announcement became official a couple of hours later.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Billy back to the Oscar stage,” Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences President Tom Sherak said in a statement. “He’s a comic legend and Oscar icon and it’s good to have him back where he belongs.”
It will be his ninth time to host the Oscars, his first time since 2004.
Only Bob Hope has hosted more often, and that record is not likely to be broken any time soon: He hosted 19 times between 1940 and 1978.
The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast on ABC Feb. 26.