Next spring's Academy Awards will be the diamond-anniversary edition, with 75 years worth of clips and nostalgia -- in other words, it'll surely run even longer than usual.
Fortunately, the Academy has picked a host whose quick wit should keep things moving: Steve Martin. He's an Oscar show veteran, having emceed two years ago and served as a presenter six times. ''I'm very pleased to be hosting the Oscars again, '' Martin said in a statement, ''because fear and nausea always make me lose weight.''
Martin has other reasons to feel excited and apprehensive besides the March 23 ceremony. His comedy with Queen Latifah, ''Bringing Down the Houze,'' will mark his first screen appearance in more than a year when it opens next spring. In January, he starts filming ''Shopgirl,'' based on his own novella, with costars Claire Danes and Jimmy Fallon. That's the movie Saks Fifth Avenue security guards testified that Winona Ryder said she was auditioning for when they stopped her for shoplifting. Expect a joke or two about that at the Oscars.
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