And the Hosts of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Are:

In a surprising and refreshing decision from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, James Franco and Anne Hathaway have been confirmed as hosts of this years Oscar telecast.  They're both the youngest hosts on record, further proof behind the Best Picture Top Ten, that the show is courting young people.  Good choice; next they can stop nominating irrelevant old-foggy films-- that would be nice too.  I'm just joshing; that will never happen.

But both are engaging, talented performers who have proven themselves, comically and dramatically, and it's nice to shake things up, especially since the event gets stodgy ever now and then.  Franco, who in the past two years has thrown himself at everything-- Pineapple Express, Milk, Eat Pray Love, the oddball "General Hospital" appearances, and currently astounding in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours--  seems primed at the position to be the next great thing that's been hanging around him since Freaks and Geeks, and the James Dean biopic he made then years ago.  However, with that a problem poses: he's likely to be nominated this year for 127 Hours, a host and a nominee might prove a bit tacky; what is this the Emmys?

Hathaway likely won't have to worry about that, since her Love and Other Drugs flick is getting tarred and feathered by the critics, but like Franco has a warmth and general gamesmanship about her that might make her a perfectly amicable emcee.  Her short duet with Hugh Jackman at the 2009 telecast, I thought, was totally delightful.  The former Disney princess has emerged into a movie star, with the help of The Devil Wears Prada, Brokeback Mountain, and her glorious Oscar-nominated work in Rachel Getting Married.

I'm ready; it can't be more awkward than Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in last year's strangely timed, and just off ceremony.  Of course, we will wait until February 27th, until then I'll stand pleasantly curious and cautiously optimistic.