Chris Rock to host Oscars

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on October 14th, 2004

It’s in all the papers… er, it would be if they were putting out afternoon editions, at least. Oscar ceremony producer Gil Cates said, “Chris represents the best of the new generation of comics.” New generation? He’s been at this comedy thing for 20 years. Hard to believe Rock is 39. We wonder if Tom Agna will become the new Bruce Vilanch? We can only hope. If Agna (and Rock’s writers from his HBO series) are on board it will be a watchable Oscarcast– nowhere near as funny as the Letterman-hosted affair but nowhere near as tedious as another Whoopi Goldberg-hosted grate-fest.