Steve Martin to Host Oscars

Steve Martin, who is only 57 but has had gray hair for 40 years, will host the 75th Academy Awards in March, Reuters reports:

The March 23 presentation of the film industry’s highest honors will mark Martin’s 10th appearance on an Oscars telecast and his second as master of ceremonies.

“I’m very pleased to be hosting the Oscars again, because fear and nausea always make me lose weight,” the 57-year-old entertainer joked in a statement issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Last year’s telecast was hosted by comic actress Whoopi Goldberg, who made a memorable entrance dressed in top hat and feathers, shouting “Come and get me boys,” as she descended to the stage on a trapeze in a send-up of “Moulin Rouge.”

Martin first hosted the Oscars in 2001 with a performance that eschewed the “wild and crazy” persona that propelled him to fame in favor of a more understated, biting humor, with many of his jabs aimed at Hollywood stereotypes.

In January Martin will begin production on Shopgirl, the film version of his own novella, starring Claire Danes, SNL’s Jimmy Fallon, and himself. According to the Hollywood Reporter

“Shopgirl” centers on Mirabelle (Danes), a disenchanted salesgirl and aspiring artist who sells gloves and accessories at Neiman Marcus. She has two men in her life: wealthy divorce Ray Porter (Martin) and a struggling musician (Fallon). Mirabelle falls in love with the glamorous Ray, and her life takes a magical turn, but eventually she realizes that she must empower herself and make a choice between them.

Go Jimmy.