The upcoming Academy Awards, the biggest night in Hollywood, will take place this year without a host for the first time in three decades, organizers said on Tuesday.
“We can confirm that there will be no host,” a spokesperson from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said without elaborating.
The academy was left hostless after actor and comedian Kevin Hart pulled out of the gig in December following a backlash on social media over homophobic tweets he made several years ago that resurfaced.
Gala organizers who have been struggling to overcome a steady decline in viewership scrambled to find a replacement, but finally settled for a ceremony with no emcee.
Industry insiders said the producers of the 91st Academy Awards on Feb. 24 plan to try out a new format with a selection of Hollywood A-listers — including Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg, Daniel Craig and Jennifer Lopez — introducing various segments.
The ceremony also has box-office hits — best-picture contenders Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born — with fans that could boost TV viewership.
The last time the Oscars went without a host was in 1989, when actor Rob Lowe was raked over the coals for his musical duet with Snow White.
In recent years, several other hosts have also come under criticism.
Actor Neil Patrick Harris got rumbled over his 2015 effort and said he would never do it again. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were a dud in 2011.
The previous two Oscars were hosted by late night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of