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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Seth Rogen Says the Academy Hung James Franco Out to Dry

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Seth Rogen Photo via Shutterstock

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Many of us who watched the 2011 Academy Awards found the hosts to be somewhat...underwhelming. James Franco appeared stoned and practically asleep next to hyper, overzealous Anne Hathaway.

Since then, the two have been getting panned right and left for their odd and ultimately not very compelling performance, but one man is speaking truth to power about the whole incident: Seth Rogen told Shortlist magazine that the Academy screwed Franco over (no mention of Hathaway) by hiring him to appeal to a younger demographic, then giving him crappy material.

"Why hire James Franco and then give him Billy Crystal’s monologue? It was like, 'Oh, we’ll hire these young hosts and then we’ll just do the same sh*t we do every f*cking year'," he said. "I think they just approached it wrong. They didn’t think it through, and they were way underprepared. I think they hung him out to dry."

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