Oscar Telecast

In a surprise move, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has chosen Brett Ratner, director of such popcorn films as "Rush Hour" and "X-Men: The Last Stand," to produce the 2012 Oscar telecast along with veteran producer Don Mischer, academy President Tom Sherak announced Thursday. The 42-year-old Ratner's youthful movies often do well at the box office but are panned by critics. He produced the R-rated summer comedy "Horrible Bosses" and will see his next directorial effort, the Ben Stiller film "Tower Heist," hit theaters in November.

One of the longest streaks in television history ... will continue. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC television network said Thursday that they had extended their licensing agreement by six years ? through 2020. The announcement comes just days before this weekend's 83rd annual Oscar gala on the network, and the new agreement keeps the Academy Awards telecast a fixture on ABC. "This contract ensures that the Oscar show will be an ABC tradition for 45 consecutive years," Tom Sherak, the academy's president, said in a prepared statement.

The 83rd Academy Awards will be telecast live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood starting at 5 p.m. PT on Feb. 27.

After two years of no rate increases for Academy Awards telecast spots, prices have rebounded sharply for this month's upcoming show, with ABC fetching prices at near-record rates. The network is charging about $1.7 million per 30-second spot ? a haul that could help the network achieve revenue of more than $80 million for Hollywood's biggest night of the year, according to advertising insiders. ABC said Thursday that it had sold out its available inventory in the glittery Feb. 27 event.

If it's good enough for "Saturday Night Live," it's good enough for ? the Academy Awards? That's the hope, anyway, of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which announced Monday that James Franco and Anne Hathaway will be co-hosting the 83rd Academy Awards. With respective ages of 32 and 28, the two actors are among the youngest hosts for the iconic award show. While both are accomplished, adventurous and well-regarded actors, their primary job qualification for hosting a live variety show is their experience toplining "SNL.

Adam Shankman's love affair with the Oscars began with an act of petty larceny. Back when he was a little boy, his father -- an entertainment lawyer and manager -- attended the Academy Awards. "He brought home the program from the show, and I stole it," said Shankman, 45. "I kept it and would look through that program for years. I just thought it was the most glorious thing in the world." After being long-transfixed by the entertainment industry, Shankman has suddenly been catapulted directly into the center of it as the co-producer of the 82nd Academy Awards.

If Sunday's Oscar telecast ends up breaking ratings records, organizers might just want to send a thank-you in the Na'vi language to James Cameron. Cameron's "Avatar," a sci-fi fable about endangered tree-dwellers on the fictional moon Pandora, has become the highest-grossing picture of all time with more than $700 million in U.S. box office. It's also up for nine nominations including best picture. The last time a Cameron picture brought home academy hardware -- for the previous box-office champion, "Titanic," in 1998 -- the award telecast soared to new heights.

When anyone talks about Oscar ratings, they inevitably mention the Super Bowl -- as in "the Oscar telecast is second only to the Super Bowl." So why is it that when critics and pundits write their inevitable "how to fix the Oscar telecast" piece, we never seem to address the actual competition? This year, Super Bowl ratings broke all records, not surprising since the game had not only the draw of the Manning dynasty but also all the inspirational back story of New Orleans. Not since Notre Dame won it for the Gipper has a game been so laden with sentimental possibility.

Maybe the world was craving an Elton John-Lady Gaga duet. Or perhaps a Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatic routine from a nearly naked Pink. Or it could be that viewers just like hearing bleeped rap songs. Whatever the case, the 35% ratings surge for Sunday's Grammy extravaganza on CBS -- nearly 26 million viewers, or about as many as for Fox's singing smash "American Idol," according to early results from the Nielsen Co. -- has the TV business asking: Are award shows staging a comeback?

In seven weeks, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be hosting its biggest Oscar ceremony in nearly 70 years -- at least as measured by the number of best picture nominees. When Sid Ganis, then-president of the academy, announced the decision to double the best picture field from five to 10, he said deserving films had been "squeezed" out of the race and, besides, back in the 1930s and 1940s, having 10 best picture nominees was the norm. (This was somewhat disingenuous: Studios released a movie a week then and barely one a month now, so the universe of films used to be much, much larger.