After following a trail of Vulture buddy Nikki Finke’s bread crumbs, we deduced that Justin Timberlake might be dancing his way into a hosting gig at the 2009 Oscars. Well, it turns out that Timberlake was just a red herring and that the Academy really has the hots for the overly sexy, multiple-time Tony host Hugh Jackman. No deal has been inked, because there is still some heavy negotiating going on between Jackman’s reps and AMPAS over Hugh’s willingness to deliver the Bruce Vilanch–penned monologue that tends to do little more than eat up eight to ten minutes of valuable airtime. “He didn’t work the last 20 years to suddenly be a stand-up comedian,†an insider told Finke. Still, it is expected that the “very nearsighted†Jackman — who, reportedly, has trouble reading TelePrompTers and forgoes them in lieu of old-fashioned memorization — will officially sign on sometime in the next few weeks. Maybe this will finally be the gig that will do for Jackman what Australia failed to do — convince moviegoers that he isn’t gay!
UPDATE (2:15pm): It’s official.
OSCARS WANT HUGH JACKMAN TO HOST: He’ll Accept If Academy Show “Different†[Deadline Hollywood Daily]