James Franco, Anne Hathaway To Host Oscars

Out with the old and in with the new. A year after Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-hosted the Academy Awards to its highest viewership since 2005, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose James Franco and Anne Hathaway to co-host the 83rd iteration of the ceremony.

This year's producers, Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, said in a joint statement about their decision that Hathaway and Franco “personify the next generation of Hollywood icons – fresh, exciting and multi-talented.”

It will be a rare year when the hosts could theoretically pick up an award themselves. Franco has generated serious Best Actor Oscar buzz for his role as a trapped hiker in 127 Hours, while Hathaway's portrayal of an early onset Parkinson's patient in Love and Other Drugs has given her an outside shot at a Best Actress nomination. --ISHITA SINGH