James Franco Tells David Letterman What Went Wrong With The Oscars

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by Jon Bershad | 12:32 pm, April 1st, 2011

» 15 comments

From critically panned Oscar host to critically panned Oscar host. After everyone declared this year’s Oscar ceremony “the worst thing in the history of everything ever” during the annual drudging, everyone was curious to see what co-host James Franco would say. After all, for many people, he was the main whipping boy. Who better to get the post mortem than David Letterman who had his own awkward dalliance with the awards show as well?

In the clip from tonight’s Late Show, Letterman gets right down to business, asking Franco why people thought he was stoned. Franco came up with the perfect answer; anyone would look stoned next to the big ball of energy that is Anne Hathaway. Now that is something I can believe.

He also had this great observation:

“I never dreamed of being the best Oscar host ever. It was never on my list of things to do. That doesn’t mean I didn’t care and it doesn’t mean I didn’t try hard, right? But here’s the hypocritical thing; Leading up to the Oscars, I couldn’t hear enough about how, ‘Oh, people don’t care about the Oscars anymore, it’s dead, it’s boring, it’sat the end of a long award season. Who cares about it?’ Well, as soon as you don’t host the way they want you to, they suddenly care and they won’t shut up about it!”

Letterman responded with some advice from someone who knows.

“I can tell you what will happen. For you, there will be a modicum of embarrassment, which you shouldn’t feel. That will pass, you’ll go into a period of numbness, and then you’ll feel, rightly so, defiant.”

I’m not sure, but it kind of sounds like Franco’s already there.

Check out the clip from CBS below:

Anne Hathaway, David Letterman, James Franco, Oscars 2011, The Oscars

notsofast

Both of these guys were losers at the award show.
BatBoy

Another “NO ONE REALLY CARES ABOUT THE OSCARS” moment.
TangledThorns

I didn’t watch because of Franco but because the Oscars has turned into snubbing those that deserve recognition.
VABirder

Annual drudging?? Uh, could that be drubbing you meant?
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

A STONER from HOLLYWIERD sits down with a WASHED-UP LIB talk show host!!!!!!!!!11111 Makes me SICK!!!!!!!!!111
http://twitter.com/SailRabbits Magister

You’ve got to give Franco a little credit. If I did something that was widely panned, I probably wouldn’t go around telling folks, I did the best that I could do.
cotchie1967

I thought he did pretty good considering he was stoned out of his skin the whole show…it was like watching Pineapple Express Part 2.
kit9

Great observation? Uh, James people don’t care about the Oscars precisely because of horrible performances like yours. And, love how he threw Anne under the bus by blaming her high energy for making him appear low energy. A corpse would have looked high energy next to James…so no blaming Anne for that Franco!
Newsjunky

notsofast said:
Both of these guys were losers at the award show.

Much like you. Most losers can identify other losers.
X-3

I try to find something about everyone that I can like. When it comes to David Letterman, I like the way he parts his teeth.
http://www.squidoo.com/lauriebethsgrotto Laurie Beth

The biggest mistake here was the idiotic decision to go with hosts that aren’t comedians in a Master of Ceremonies role. It’s never a good idea.

David Letterman’s problem…well, I think the Sarandon/Robbins joke was funny, but I’m a New Yorker and this is a West Coast event. Hollywood has absolutely no sense of humor about itself, and never has. Billy Crystal was so successful as an Oscar host because he fully understands that.
mediadoubt

Laurie Beth said:
The biggest mistake here was the idiotic decision to go with hosts that aren’t comedians in a Master of Ceremonies role. It’s never a good idea.

David Letterman’s problem…well, I think the Sarandon/Robbins joke was funny, but I’m a New Yorker and this is a West Coast event. Hollywood has absolutely no sense of humor about itself, and never has. Billy Crystal was so successful as an Oscar host because he fully understands that.

What the Oscar producers never seem to learn is that, while it’s a room full of movie people, the show itself is live TV. While there are lots of artists who can span live entertainment and something it takes an army of experts 6 months to edit, The Academy seldom hires them. I relalize there have been some duds among stand-up types of performers, but the odds are stacked againt the viewer, when they pick sticks like Franco and Professional PerkyDolls like Hathaway.
ChrisNH

There is a correlation between how utterly STUPID Hollywood elites are and their lust for Obamo. Obamo’s getting kicked in the ass each day, and so are these Hollywood inbreds.
Nationman

ChrisNH said:
There is a correlation between how utterly STUPID Hollywood elites are and their lust for Obamo. Obamo’s getting kicked in the ass each day, and so are these Hollywood inbreds.

IN an article that has nothing to do with politics, the partisan hacks have found a way to bring in politics. Good one jackass.
Nationman

I don’t see what franco has done that warrants so much attention to him, his acting has been alright but he hasn’t had any sort of amazing role that I would consider a great landmark in his career. He has potential, but I think people put him on a pedestal simply because of that potential acting ability and inevitably when you put that much pressure on a person they will let you down.