Set your PVRs to stunned: after allegedly being banned from Hollywood (essentially) after last year’s Golden Globe debacle, Ricky Gervais has apparently been asked back as host.
At a UK media event, the British actor claimed he’s considering the offer, but doesn’t think he should do it as it’s a “second encore”; officially posing the question, “What am I going back as?” (Um, my hero, for starters.)
Of course, if you’ve been paying attention to his goings on, this announcement isn’t surprising. This is the second time news of Gervais’ potential return has hit the internet, since shortly after the ceremony, the comedian took to Heat magazine to claim that due to increased ratings, he’d been asked back. (Though Phil Berk, President of the Hollywood Foreign Press later slammed the rumour.)
And now? Gervais has re-iterated his initial piece in Heat, touching on the egos of actors as well as the possibility of him hosting the Oscars: “It wasn’t a roomful of wounded soldiers,” he explained. “It was the most privileged people on the planet who spend all day pretending to be someone else. I teased them, I ribbed them.”
“I couldn’t do the Oscars,” he added (while confirming he’d indeed been asked to consider vying for award show host). “It’s a thankless task for a comedian. They don’t want to hear jokes, they want to hear if they have won the most important award of their career.”
That must explain the disinterest in Anne Hathaway’s song-and-dance routine.
