Industry insider, Nikki Finke, over at Deadline Hollywood has been developing an exclusive scoop from yesterday concerning an upcoming surprise choice in the host for next year's Oscar telecast.

The previously described new host was referred to as being "way outside the box" and was not a television personality or any sort of stand-up comedian. As a matter of fact, along with this news comes, in my opinion, a bit of disappointing info that the usual opening joke bits that have consistently stood as the opening act for the Academy Awards is being put aside. And with the announcement of the potential new host, it's fairly easy to understand why.

Next year it looks like the Oscars will be hosted by recently dubbed Sexiest Man Alive, Aussie actor Hugh Jackman.

While negotiations are still in progress, and Jackman hasn't fully committed to the show yet, it seems like it's only the details being sorted out. However, Finke's post gives a bit more insight into the choice to remove the opening monologue that has preceded the awards ceremony. She writes comments by an insider, ""I don't want that for him. He is an actor with big movies behind him and one coming this summer. He didn't work the last 20 years to suddenly be a stand-up comedian."

Personally, I find this comment to be a bit insulting to stand-up comedians or anybody that has any respect or love for the art of comedy. Being a stand-up comedian is quite possible one of the hardest things you can do as an entertainer. You write your own script, perform by yourself, and when you bomb, you can literally hear yourself fail (*crickets*). But oh how lowly and insulting it must be to have to make people laugh...TELL ME A JOKE, MONKEY!

Backing up this position to make Jackman less of a funny man and more of a distinguished host is the use of Laurence Mark and Bill Condon as producers. Last year Mark and Condon worked together as producer and director (respectively) on the much praised semi-biographical musical Dreamgirls. So their musical interest seems to imply the desire to bring the Tony-award-winning performance roots from The Boy from Oz out of Jackman and onto the Academy Awards stage.

While I like the Academy's desire to do something different, especially after the abysmal ratings drawn in by last year's telecast, removing one of the more entertaining aspects of the consistently boring and hours long awards ceremony is not one of them.

If we're going to start with an overhaul of the Oscar telecast, the host isn't a bad place to start, but maybe first the Academy should consider getting a bit more in touch with the average audience and stop pandering to depressing, heavy dramas with the exception of the yearly little-Indie-movie-that-could ( Juno, Little Miss Sunshine). Personally I don't understand why a movie like The Bourne Ultimatum wasn't nominated for Best Picture last year over a similar and far less thrilling Michael Clayton, when in the past thrilling sort of action films like The French Connection and The Sting have been nominated and won the award. Hell, even Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated. And while there's a lot of buzz around the crowd and critic pleasing The Dark Knight, I feel like most of the praise will go towards the late Heath Ledger, and a potential Best Picture nod will just be a publicity stunt to attract more viewers.

If the Academy really wants to get their audience back, they need to go back to the drawing board and really think about what it's like to sit in a movie theater, bewildered, mesmerized and inspired by a motion picture.

UPDATE: It's official. Hugh Jackman will be hosting the Oscars