Showbiz411

In another smart move, the Motion Picture Academy has decided that this year’s show host Seth MacFarlane will announce the nominees. MacFarlane will be joined at 8:30am Eastern, 5:30am Pacific this Thursday morning by Emma Stone, who was so good in “The Help” and “Amazing Spider Man,” among others. MacFarlane is the first host since 1972 to be awakened this early in the morning to perform these duties. That year their were four hosts– Helen Hayes, Sammy Davis, Jr., Alan King, and Jack Lemmon. (Talk about eclectic.) What’s cool is that that show, 40 years ago, was produced by Howard W. Koch, the late father of current Academy chief Hawk Koch. Nice symmetry. With any luck, MacFarlane will have stayed up all night and be ready for some fun.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.