From the looks of his latest social networking video update, James Franco got a good sleep last night and is fully prepared for his duties as co-host of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards (along with what’s her face). Clearly James is getting very comfortable with his freshly-opened Facebook and Twitter accounts because he can’t stop posting pics and video, and people can’t seem to get enough (I’m a fellow francoholic).
James’ story is kind of remarkable and unprecedented in regards to the speed with which he’s skyrocketed to world-wide A-list territory. It seems like only yesterday he was the quiet, good-looking shy guy in the Spiderman franchise. Now he’s hosting the Oscars (a spot always reserved for the biggest, most established old school Hollywood suits) and it seems you can’t even walk down the sidewalk without hearing his name or seeing his face on every other magazine. And from what I’ve seen the guy will not be suffering the usual curse of overexposure that typically sticks to stars who rise too fast like this. He’s clearly got a head full of plans and more imagination than a hundred generic actors his same age. I get the sense from his overwhelming Ivy League range of education, and his cock-sure playful relationship with popular culture as “performance art” (he also just opened a major exhibition of his art in Berlin recently which was attended by the most important curators from around the world, including the MoMA; click HERE for details) that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg from Mr. Franco.
With the heart-stopping good looks of James Dean, the rebel spirit of the ultimate Hollywood enfant terrible Dennis Hopper, and more degrees than even I can keep track of (I stopped counting), James is shaking up Tinseltown in the most exciting, intellectual, and credible ways imaginable.
And here’s James’ groggy, crusty-eyed VIDEO which he tweeted from his bed this morning:
There’s also a great story about how James got the Oscar gig in late 2010. He’s very close friends with the Producer of the Academy Awards, Bruce Cohen (MILK, American Beauty), and called Bruce up one day about an idea for a skit for the awards show. The year before, James had done a bit with Seth Rogen which went over really well and everybody raved about it. James called up Bruce with the idea to do a skit for this year’s show that would somehow incorporate the Twilight cast. Bruce lulled it over, but eventually one-upped James by offering him the chance to host the entire show. You can listen to the full story from James’ appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show from last December.
James actually gets into the story in Part 2 (around the 2:36 mark), but both parts are a good watch because he speaks candidly about his hectic school life, and includes a funny story about a girl/classmate who was sitting beside him one day and he happened to peek into her notebook and noticed something “interesting” that she wrote about him.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfDqq0SoPOg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT051qYkRLQ&feature=fvwrel[/youtube]
