Hosting the Oscars looks like a miserable job, doesn’t it? The scrutiny is enormous, Twitter performs a vivisection on you while you play rich movie star traffic cop and even the options considered tailor-made to be the evening’s MC aren’t safe from being sh*t on without mercy. Of course, there are perks like the afterparty and the paycheque that we presume evens it out. Wait, an Oscar hosting payout equals how much?
The titular Jimmy Kimmel of Jimmy Kimmel Live! is hosting next year’s edition of golden idol worship and endless celebratory montages and his ability to not give a flying fridge may be his secret weapon. Kimmel joined KROQ’s Kevin and Bean on Wednesday morning and wound up revealing what he gets paid to be Mr. Oscars for one night. The answer? $15,000. We’ll give you a moment to decide if that’s too high for that type of work or ridiculously low considering the high-profile/high revenue event he’s anchoring.
“You know why? I think it’s illegal to pay nothing,” said a laughing Kimmel. According to what he was told, that’s the same payday earned by Billy Crystal and Chris Rock. Kimmel admits that he isn’t entirely sure if the salary is supposed to be a secret, but this is one mysterious bit of Hollywood stuff we’re glad he’s spoiling for us.
Helping facilitate statuette handoffs won’t sink Kimmel’s annual post-Oscars goof-em-up plans in 2017. He’s confident that his aftershow presence will still exist even with this added responsibility on his plate.
“We’ll figure something out,” he stated. “There will be something.”
The 89th Annual Academy Awards will take place on February 26 and pencil in “something” for that portion of the calendar, too.
(Via IndieWire)
