If some members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences \u2014 the organization behind the Oscars \u2014 have their way, February\u2019s ceremony won\u2019t\u2026<\/b>
\nIf some members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences \u2014 the organization behind the Oscars \u2014 have their way, February\u2019s ceremony won\u2019t have a host.
\u201cDump the host! Make the show two hours! Kill the opening number, cut all the skits,\u201d said one. \u201cThat\u2019s your ratings ticket.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s on the table,\u201d a second AMPAS member told The Post.
The uproar comes after comedian Kevin Hart, 39, announced he would no longer be hosting the 2019 Oscars in February after GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and other LGBTQ supporters called out homophobic and anti-gay jokes he had tweeted as recently as 2011.
Now, some Hollywood sources say the high-profile position is not worth the potential risk to reputation.
\u201cWe don\u2019t encourage our clients to [host the Oscars] anymore,\u201d said one prominent agent. \u201cEvery host gets picked apart by vultures.
\u201cThe job\u2019s become a lose-lose for everyone, and Hollywood\u2019s finally figured it out,\u201d the agent added. \u201cBig stars have lots to lose. New ones don\u2019t get ratings.\u201d
It\u2019s not the first time the Academy Awards have been hit with controversy. In 2011, Eddie Murphy stepped down as host in solidarity with Brett Ratner, his producer for the show. Ratner, who last year was further tarnished in a #MeToo scandal in which he was accused by six women of sexual assault, resigned from the Oscars just months before the ceremony, after he publicly joked \u201crehearsal is for f-gs\u201d at a film Q&A. (Ratner has denied the assault allegations.)
One manager who represents many comedians predicts it will be hard to find a Hart replacement who is beyond reproach. \u201cComics are equal-opportunity [joke tellers]: Jews, blacks, gay, straight. Political correctness is not funny. It\u2019s hard to find someone funny and wholesome.\u201d
A longtime TV producer agreed: \u201cIf [the Academy] casts someone young, they won\u2019t have skeletons, but they won\u2019t get ratings. And anyone over 35 has something to hide.\u201d
An Academy member confided that \u201cHart is what [we\u2019re] looking for: young, black, funny \u2014 and with 66 million Instagram followers. The Oscars have ratings and diversity to think about.\u201d
Hart initially refused to apologize for his past tweets, saying in an Instagram video that he had addressed the matter before and \u201cI\u2019m almost 40 years old. If you don\u2019t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don\u2019t know what to tell you.\u201d
He added of the Oscars fiasco: \u201cWe\u2019re feeding the Internet trolls and we reward them.\u201d (After resigning, Hart issued a statement that read in part, \u201cI sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.\u201d)
Already on a year-to-year decline, Oscars\u2019 2018 ratings slipped by a precipitous 19 percent. In October, the Academy tapped popular \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d producer Donna Gigliotti and veteran awards-show director Glenn Weiss with the specific goal of pumping up sagging ratings.
\u201cThere\u2019s been enough Oscars controversy,\u201d said the first AMPAS member, referring to both the #TimesUp wave that led to the expulsion of Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby from the Academy, as well as the enormous flub of \u201cLa La Land\u201d being mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner in 2017, rather than actual champ \u201cMoonlight.\u201d Weiss and Gigliotti are seen as safe, smart but fun choices: \u201cThat\u2019s why they hired them.\u201d
At least one source at ABC, which airs the Oscars, believes the network should have more input into any new choice of host. \u201cNetworks think about things like vetting,\u201d an ABC lawyer told The Post.
\u201cWe should have a lot more input, but the Academy continually shuts us out.\u201d
Meanwhile, there is increasingly little reason for stars to take the Oscar hosting gig. After helming the show in 2017, Jimmy Kimmel revealed he was paid just $15,000. And celebrities including James Franco, Anne Hathaway, Seth McFarlane, Neil Patrick Harris and Chris Rock have all been lambasted for their performances and sagging ratings in recent years. Among those who have reportedly turned down the job: Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld and Justin Timberlake. (So far, Busy Phillips and Ricky Gervais have thrown their hats in the ring for 2019.)<\/p>\n