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HAMMOND: Time For Billy Crystal & Oscar Again? UPDATE: Brett Ratner Responds

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday August 15, 2011 @ 10:45pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Cinematheque, Billy Crystal, Bob Hope, Brett Ratner, Don Mischer
Pete Hammond

MONDAY PM  UPDATE: As you know, Brett Ratner is producing the Oscar show with Don Mischer and emailed me tonight with his reaction to Billy Crystal’s statements regarding possibly hosting the Oscars again. Ratner says: “I didn’t see what Billy said. I’m really focused on finishing my film Tower Heist right now. [But] I was told by the Academy that I don’t have to make a decision until mid-September.”

PREVIOUS: So is Billy Crystal once again the answer to all of Oscar’s woes? His statement in answer to a fan’s query at an American Cinematheque screening of City Slickers on Friday night was that he might be open to hosting again “maybe one or two more times”. But that’s not even the first time he’s dropped the hint this year. In March, shortly after he made his appearance on the 83rd Oscar show to honor Bob Hope, he was hosting a charity event  and told a reporter, “I think the show needs to change. There’s too many awards and it has to sort of freshen itself up, and if I can be a part of that, that would be great.” Between that and Friday’s encouraging words, what more do the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and newly minted producers Brett Ratner and Don Mischer need to hear? READ MORE »

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Billy Crystal Is “Itchy” To Host Oscars Again

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday August 15, 2011 @ 4:01pm PDTTags: 83rd Academy Awards, 84th Academy Awards, Billy Crystal



February’s 83rd Academy Awards called him “one of the greatest Oscar hosts of all time”. And Hollywood realized how much he was missed when he made a surprise appearance on stage at the Kodak Theatre last time around. Now Billy Crystal dropped a big hint this past weekend that he’s “itchy” to host again. The 63-year-old actor made the remarks during a Q&A for an American Cinematheque screening to mark the 20th anniversary of his comedy City Slickers. The Los Angeles Times caught his remarks:

“It got to be too much after a while and the sameness in my life. That’s why I pulled back. And then when I thought I might want to do it again, they were on to other people. It’s always fun. It’s really hard, but maybe one or two more times? I don’t know. They know where I am… I came out last year as a surprise. It was a last-minute decision. They had called and said would you do this thing and honor Bob Hope and that was a kind of cool thing to do. I said OK. I did it, and people wanted to see me, they stood up, and I couldn’t talk for about a minute. And, um, I got a little itchy. So we’ll see what happens. I can’t promise anything.”

Here’s his cameo from the 83rd Academy Awards: Read More »

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Sophia Loren Honored At Movie Academy 50 Years After Her First Oscar

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday May 5, 2011 @ 4:34pm PDTTags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, Billy Crystal, Sophia Loren
Pete Hammond

She won her first Oscar for 1961′s Two Women, the first performer to win for acting in a foreign language. Then in 1991, the Academy decided she needed another Oscar and gave her an Honorary Award. Apparently, still wanting to demonstrate their love, the Academy in association with Cinecitta Luce gave Loren another tribute Wednesday night in front of a packed house at their Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills. Ostensibly in honor of the 50th anniversary of that first Oscar, the beautifully produced program covered her entire career through clips and reminiscences of friends and colleagues that was also significant for another reason: it also brought eight-time Oscar show M.C. Billy Crystal back into a hosting mode for the Academy, and to say he killed would be an understatement. Loren personally asked for Billy, whom she first met at that 1991 ceremony where she got that second Oscar.

After opening with a clip from 1964′s Marriage Italian Style, Crystal came out punching with a hilarious intro all in broken Italian. Then he praised the guest of honor (sitting in the front row next to son Edoardo Ponti). “Just thinking about her beauty can keep a traffic controller awake at night,” he joked. “Bin Laden’s  last words were, ‘I can’t believe I am gonna miss Wednesday night!’ “Among his other bon mots: ”She could live next door to you and you would never know she was there, even if you were the Pakistani military.” Or: “Miss Loren and I had a hot affair for years. She didn’t know it of course … when I met her I  was amazed she didn’t have a staple in the middle of her chest.”

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Hot Parody: ‘When Harry Met Sally 2′

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 7, 2011 @ 4:33pm PDTTags: Billy Crystal, Funny Or Die Video, Helen Mirren, Movies, Video
Mike Fleming

Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner and Helen Mirren starred in this mock trailer for the When Harry Met Sally sequel, which premiered on Funny Or Die. Pretty witty stuff and more evidence that despite all her accolades and regal standing, Mirren is game for anything.

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‘City Slickers’ Scribes Re-Join Billy Crystal

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday August 31, 2010 @ 4:39pm PDTTags: Andy Fickman, Babaloo Mandel, Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz
Mike Fleming

Writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel have come aboard to do a quick rewrite of Us & Them, the Andy Fickman-directed film. The scribes worked with the film’s star/producer, Billy Crystal, on City Slickers, Forget Paris and Father’s Day.  Us & Them, picked up in turnaround from Paramount, is on … Read More »

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