Will Seth MacFarlane host the 2014 Oscars? According to a new report from Just Jared, MacFarlane was asked to return as emcee of the Academy Awards by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The duo, who tapped MacFarlane for the 2013 Oscars, was brought back on as Academy Awards producers on Tuesday.
HuffPost Entertainment reached out to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for comment on the MacFarlane rumor. “Given the fact that we just confirmed Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to produce, we understand how people might speculate in that fashion, but it's really way too early to have any idea who our host might be in 2014," an Academy spokesperson said to HuffPost in an email.
MacFarlane's first effort as Oscars host was a mixed bag. The broadcast was watched by over 40 million people (making it the highest-rated entertainment awards show in three years), but MacFarlane was criticized for sexist and misogynistic material. The "Family Guy" creator was admonished for one routine in particular: "We Saw Your Boobs," which highlighted films in which the lead actresses took off their clothes. Three of the actresses mentioned (Jodie Foster, Charlize Theron and Hilary Swank), were topless during rape scenes.
"The 'boob' song, as it will be known in perpetuity, may go down as the highest-rated Oscar number in history, but at what cost?" actress Jamie Lee Curtis wrote in a blog posted by The Huffington Post. "I'm sure public executions would get big ratings too, but is that what the Oscars are truly about? Ratings? When did they turn into a 'roast'?"
"It was not about the women that were mentioned, the song was about him being a bad host and him being a juvenile, which was why he was a bad host," Zadan told THR in March. Meron added that "everyone who complained missed the joke, it was satire."
For his part, MacFarlane hasn't expressed too much interest, at least publicly, about returning for the 2014 Oscars.
"Who knows how this will go," he said before the broadcast. "Even if it goes great, I just don't think that I could do this again. It's just too much with everything else that I have to do. I'm happy to be doing it and I will be thrilled to have done it, assuming I get out of there in one piece, but I really think this is a one-time thing for me."
After the Oscars, MacFarlane reiterated his feelings:
For more on MacFarlane and the Oscars, head over to Just Jared.
[via Just Jared]
This post has been updated with comment from the AMPAS.
