The move is seen as an effort to return to basics — in other words, have one funny act head up the entire ceremony. In years past, the Academy has experimented with different hosting ideas, culminating in the somewhat questionable move this year that saw actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway emceeing what many called a disastrous show.

]]> http://929nin.com/eddie-murphy-host-oscars/feed/ 0 Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images http://929nin.com/james-franco-and-anne-hathaways-opening-monlogue-for-the-oscars-video/ http://929nin.com/james-franco-and-anne-hathaways-opening-monlogue-for-the-oscars-video/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:48:36 +0000 Aaron Galloway http://929nin.com/?p=2988 James Franco and Anne Hathaway were certainly outside-the-box picks to host the 83rd annual Academy Awards.  And after a pre-taped opening in which they tried to elicit advice from last year's host Alec Baldwin by channeling his dreams, “Inception” - style, the duo weren’t required to do a whole lot of heavy lifting in their opening monologue.

In it, they made reference to how their youth was intended to appeal to a new younger demographic.  Then  they spent a good chunk of the monologue acknowledging their elders:  Hathaway had a conversation with her mother, who was in the audience, and Franco did the same with his grandmother.  Read on to check it out.