Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch is setting the record straight about James Franco‘s spacy Oscar hosting.
“I was with him, and he wasn’t high. And I asked him, ‘Are you high, and can I have some?’ And he said no to both,” Vilanch tells New York magazine.
He says planning was difficult because he was co-hosting the show with Anne Hathaway.
“He has so many balls in the air, he didn’t get to town till Thursday before the show on Sunday,” Vilanch said of Franco, who also attends Yale. “And so we e-mailed a lot. But we had a lot of meetings. He had a bunch of people who were writing for him, and if it had been him alone, it would have been different. But it was him and Anne Hathaway, and they both had to be serviced. So there was a lot of communication beforehand. But he didn’t get there.”
Vilanch says he liked the idea of Franco as a host because of his experience on Saturday Night Live — and because he assured everyone he wouldn’t be nervous on stage.
Vilanch also admits a scene was cut from the show. Franco was supposed to do a horrible cover version of Cher’s Burlesque.
