Hart? Hanks? New film academy members offer Oscar host ideas

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – The newest members of the film academy will cast their first Oscar ballots this season, but the choice for Oscar host — usually decided in October — will be strictly up to Oscar brass.

Yet that didn’t stop a few of the new recruits from chiming in on the process at a private welcome reception held earlier this week by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .

“Oh, my God!” said Oscar nominated screenwriter Phyllis Nagy at the prospect of picking an Academy Awards host. “Well, I understand they don’t want to do it, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: They should be Oscar hosts.”

“Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman didn’t hesitate to share his choice: Kevin Hart.

“I think he wants to do it,” Boseman said. “Why not Kevin Hart?”

Visual effects artist Kevin Baillie had a more unconventional suggestion.

“I know this is going to sound kind of crazy, but I actually think JJ Abrams would do an amazing job at hosting the Oscars,” he said. “He is funny, he’s smart as a tack and he’s really embedded in the industry. He’s not an actor. He’s not a comedian. But man he would do a good job.”

Actress Rita Wilson, who joined the academy this year after decades in the business, has a special actor in mind for the job.

“Well, I would nominate my husband,” she said of her hubby and fellow academy member, Tom Hanks. “I think he’d be really good. But I’m biased.”

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .