Oscars 2013: Seth MacFarlane, Emma Stone to Announce Nominations

Seth MacFarlane will join Emma Stone to announce the 85th Annual Academy Award nominations Thursday morning.

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The Family Guy creator and Ted director is the first Oscars host to emcee the nominees announcement since 1972, when Charlton Heston had the job.

The news conference starts at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

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MacFarlane, 38, was crowned the Academy's latest ringmaster back in October. At the time, Craig Zadan -- who's co-producing the Feb. 24 telecast with Neil Meron, told The Hollywood Reporter that "Seth became the logical choice. ... We went to him and found out he was indeed able to arrange his schedule so he could do it. We were overjoyed that he was interested, so we started discussions."

MacFarlane's response: "That’s a nice way of saying I was sitting outside their office."

All eyes will be on the multihyphenate entertainment mogul at Thursday's press conference. His presence will be a preview of sorts for the Feb. 24 Oscars broadcast and might pull more viewers into the show, depending on the strength of his delivery.

Stone, 22, starred in last year's The Amazing Spider-Man and next will be seen on the big screen in the crime drama Gangster Squad, out Friday.

Twitter: @ErinLCarlson

Email: erin.carlson@thr.com