I’m not aware of this news breaking in any other format, so I guess it fell to Seth MacFarlane’s Twitter feed to announce that he and Emma Stone will be announcing the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards at 5am PST on Thursday.
This marks a break from tradition in a few ways. As long I’ve been watching the Oscars, it has been the president of the Academy who has delivered the crack-of-dawn news, joined by a former Oscar winner or nominee. (Recently, Jennifer Lawrence, Mo’Nique, Anne Hathaway and Forest Whitaker have all had the bleary-eyed pleasure.)
But MacFarlane’s tweet suggests recently elected AMPAS chief Hawk Koch won’t be joining them, while the entire roster of post Oscar nominees have been allowed their beauty sleep: as much as I prefer to remember that Emma Stone won Best Actress two years ago for “Easy A,” her day has yet to arrive. Still, it’s clear the 24-year-old dynamo is in the Academy’s good books. Perhaps this is her reward for being Most Valued Presenter at last year’s ceremony?
Meanwhile, the Academy’s clearly getting maximum value out of MacFarlane — who will, of course, also be presenting the ceremony itself next month. Between him and Stone, I guess we can expect a livelier nominee announcement than the usual brisk roll-call of names. One question remains, though: is the Academy counting on MacFarlane not getting any nominations for “Ted?” Or Stone for “The Amazing Spider-Man?” That’s a gentle way to break it, I suppose.
So, does this news make you any more excited for Thursday’s announcement — or will you be catching the news at a more civil hour?