It should come as
no surprise that Ellen DeGeneres is hosting the 79th
annual Academy Awards. How could she not? With her warm,
welcoming vibe and unparalleled comic timing,
she's probably the best performer alive for the
job. But the occasion is no less momentous for that. Think
of it: On February 25, on televisions around the
globe, a handsome, out American lesbian sporting a
tuxedo will be the face of
the Oscars,
the
mother of all awards shows, the biggest night in the
entertainment universe. And Ellen will be making
history--again.
DeGeneres is the
66th performer to host the Academy Awards, and only the
second woman to host solo. There's a reason that
group is so small. "The show is L-I-V-E, and
there's no two ways about it," says Sid Ganis,
president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. "It doesn't mean it's
live minus an hour, it means it's
live.
"
Live
is what Ellen DeGeneres does best. Remember her
knockout performance as host of the 2001 Emmy Awards?
(Another historic first: out lesbian, tux, etc.)
TV's big awards night had been canceled in the wake
of September 11 and, amid fears of both bad taste and
further violence, canceled again. Third time around,
DeGeneres got the green light, took the stage, and
gave America some much-needed communal laughs. Her send-up
of Bjork's outrageous swan dress, which had been
the talk of the 2001 Oscars, got gender into the joke.
Striding onstage bare-legged, DeGeneres seemed to be
saying,
See how silly it would be for me to come out here
in a dress?
Even more to the point was her thank-you
to CBS head Leslie Moonves, who was seated in the
audience, for choosing her to host: "What would
bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit
surrounded by Jews?"
Famous as she was
then, we didn't know her as we do now. Since 2001,
DeGeneres has logged at least 1,000 hours of TV
time--and won 15 Daytime Emmys--with a
daily talk show that industry watchers once snickered at,
predicting it would never get off the ground. Now
The
Ellen DeGeneres Show
is one of TV's
true powerhouses, and Ellen herself, having long ago
transcended gay fame, is closing in on Oprah fame.
No other
performer has so successfully conquered Main Street America
while living an authentic gay life. At 49, happily coupled
with Portia de Rossi, DeGeneres is sharper than ever
at her craft, and while she has always had an
abundance of all-American good looks, she's become
quite beautiful--leaner, sexier, more
extraordinary--a simply smashing woman.
DeGeneres has found her inner Cary Grant at the exact moment
America has come around to embracing him. Or maybe
DeGeneres just charmed America until all resistance
crumbled.
What has
propelled her to excel in so many ways, to log so many
firsts as an entertainer and a person? "A
strong belief that there are no limitations and that I
can accomplish anything," the star says. "I
have always felt like if I set my mind to it, it can
happen."
She set her mind
to hosting the Oscars long ago. "That was a goal I
had from the beginning of my career," DeGeneres
explains. "I wanted to be the first woman
comedian that Johnny Carson invited over to the couch and
that happened, and I've achieved other goals, but
this is one of the biggest."
Perhaps it was
inevitable, then, that Ganis and producer Laura Ziskin
decided the 79th Academy Awards hosting gig had
DeGeneres's name on it. "This was the
time, this was the year," says Ganis. "Ellen
has gotten to a place now where audiences know
her,
not a character she's playing.
Audiences adore her. And I think that's enduring. It
gets down to 'This is who I am,' and as
she portrays who she is to the audience, they just eat
her up. They love her more and more."
So do we.
