Hathaway Comments on Reactions to Her Oscar-Hosting Gig

By the accounts of most, the last Oscar ceremony was an unmitigated disaster. Some blamed the awkward presentation of certain “specialties” this year, but the majority of viewers threw the blame on Oscar hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

Not too long ago, Franco discussed the stint, admitting that he probably could have done better, but now it’s Anne Hathaway’s turn to chat up the big night. The Hollywood Reporter relays an interview she had with the Today show yesterday, and here’s what she had to say:

“They said we were the worst show ever. I think that qualifies as tough.”

  

She states that co-host Franco maybe suffered from “low energy” but that she “honestly played those lines as well as [she] could.”

“There was the critical reaction, which was awful. Then there are the people who have been coming up to me since then who stop and say, 'I thought it was fantastic. I watched it with my family and we were entertained.' I am very grateful to those people. And then there's my memory of it - which is , whether it was great or whether it stunk, who knows? I still got to walk out on the Kodak and see those people and someday I'll get to tell my grandkids about it."

While I agree that the ceremony itself didn’t work quite as well as producers had wanted it to, I don’t put the blame on Hathaway at all. If anything, she kept the show together. Well, as best as it could stay together, that is. The sequence of events for the night – particularly the annoying focus on pandering to reaching a younger demographic – ruined the whole show.

I’ve no qualms about two young stars being hired for the gig. I do, however, have a problem with the fact that they were hired for the wrong reasons, as well as the incidence of one performing not so admirably while the other carried the show on her capable shoulders.

If I may chime in here: I was pretty light on the hosts after the show--Julian makes some solid points in his analysis--It's Franco's reaction to criticism of the job he did that troubled me...it seemed as though he took it a bit too personally--Oscars is a tough gig and the only way to avoid criticism of the show is to decline the job...T

Yes, it feels like forever ago, but what are your thoughts on this debacle?