Neil Patrick Harris Admits to Panicking over Hosting the Oscars - East Idaho News
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Neil Patrick Harris Admits to Panicking over Hosting the Oscars

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022015 NeilPatrickHarris?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1424460289946ABC/Rick Rowell(LOS ANGELES) — Neil Patrick Harris has been preparing to host this Sunday’s Oscars for weeks, but he’s still on edge about the show. Those nerves are nothing new, however, because they’re the same ones that plagued him before he hosted the Tonys and the Emmys.

“I know what is going to happen: I know that four days out, three days out, I’ll think everything is wrong and it’s terrible,” he said Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America. “And it’ll all turn out OK.”

Harris, who has said hosting the Academy Awards was always on his bucket list, was approached to helm the awards show after a whirlwind year.

“I had just finished How I Met Your Mother. And I had done done Hedwig, this crazy Broadway musical. Oh, and I had a book that was out. I have a book out. You should buy it. Plug!” he quipped. “No, no, as soon as the book tour is done and those 50 million people buy this book and not Amy Poehler’s, then everything is done. And then you get a call, ‘Will you host the Oscars?’ And I had to say yes.”

So what can viewers expect? Costume changes (he’s considering a lime-green ensemble), magic (“It doesn’t have to be sawing a woman in half,” he hinted) and, hopefully, a few surprises, too.

“The only time it’s [terrible] is when it [involves] mishaps,” he said. “Then you think, ‘Should I comment on it? Should I comment on the fact that they garbled that name or…is that kicking someone when they’re down?'”

Harris explained that the Oscars caps off a nearly year-long campaign for the “starving, exhausted” nominees, and, he joked, knowing that they’re sitting in a crowded theater wearing uncomfortable couture, he wants to make them feel at ease.

“That’s my job,” he said. “My goal is to [make them feel] comfortable…and respected.”

Harris now joins a short list of Hollywood heavyweights to host the Oscars including, Bob Hope, Billy Crystal, Seth McFarland, Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen DeGeneres, among others.

One former host, Harris said, was part of his first memory of watching the Oscars.

“I remember Johnny Carson in a tuxedo, probably ’70s, early ’80s, bow tie. Being classy and cool,” he revealed on GMA.

Harris said he’s thrilled to step into his shoes. “A fine group of people have been asked to do it before me so it’s quite an honor,” he added.

The Oscars airs this Sunday on ABC beginning at 7 p.m.


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