Film News: Billy Crystal Takes Over as Oscar Host

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CHICAGO – A day after Eddie Murphy dropped out as the host of the next Academy Awards Ceremony, Billy Crystal announced on his twitter that he would take over the hosting duties. Crystal will host the Oscars for the ninth time on February 26, 2012.

Crystal’s announcement comes just days after both Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy departed from the 2012 Oscar ceremony. Brian Grazer was announced as the new show producer yesterday, and rumors started to swirl around who the new host could be; Ricky Gervais, Neal Patrick Harris, The Muppets, Dan Aykroyd (“Trading Spaces” anyone?). In the end, the Academy went with a reliable favorite.

Crystal tweeted the hosting news this afternoon: “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.”

Crystal will still be 10 hosting jobs shy of Bob Hope’s record 19 appearances, but the 2011 hosting job makes Crystal a host in four different decades. Hopefully, Grazer and Crystal can team up to create an Oscar ceremony that made Billy a favorite for eight Oscar ceremonies before this. The bright side? It would be pretty hard to be worse than James Franco and Anne Hathaway from last year’s show.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Tim Martens

By TIM MARTENS
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
tim@hollywoodchicago.com

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