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Neil Patrick Harris: an Oscars host not a million miles from Seth MacFarlane Neil Patrick Harris: an Oscars host not a million miles from Seth MacFarlane
(about 1 hour later)
Presenting the Golden Globes this year, Amy Poehler took a moment to wish “a very good evening to everyone here in the room and all the women and gay men watching at home”.Presenting the Golden Globes this year, Amy Poehler took a moment to wish “a very good evening to everyone here in the room and all the women and gay men watching at home”.
Whether that’s a fair assessment of award shows’ TV demographic is up for debate. But it reflected a growing sense that you need a highly sophisticated camp connoisseur to appreciate the Oscars - or host them. That MC has to represent the viewers at home, rather like a TV reality show presenter, mediating between the contestants and the superstar judges.Whether that’s a fair assessment of award shows’ TV demographic is up for debate. But it reflected a growing sense that you need a highly sophisticated camp connoisseur to appreciate the Oscars - or host them. That MC has to represent the viewers at home, rather like a TV reality show presenter, mediating between the contestants and the superstar judges.
All of which makes Neil Patrick Harris a very interesting choice: he’s hosted Broadway’s Tony awards for many years, and other award ceremonies, including the Magic Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, being himself a gifted magician – as well as mainstream song’n’dance man. He has played lead roles in Rent, Sweeney Todd, Assassins and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. All of which makes Neil Patrick Harris a very interesting choice: he’s hosted Broadway’s Tony awards for many years, and other award ceremonies, including the Magic Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, being himself a gifted magician - as well as mainstream song’n’dance man. He has played lead roles in Rent, Sweeney Todd, Assassins and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
But more relevantly, he is the actor with cult status for playing a teen medic on Steven Bochco’s TV show Doogie Howser MD, and then became best known as a besuited womaniser on the slow-burn TV hit How I Met Your Mother. Now he’s becoming a cult figure for his role in David Fincher’s movie Gone Girl - playing the wealthy, fastidiously dressed Desi Collings, Amy’s poignantly besotted ex-boyfriend – a “tragic straight” role. But more relevantly, he is the actor with cult status for playing a teen medic on Steven Bochco’s TV show Doogie Howser MD, and then became best known as a besuited womaniser on the slow-burn TV hit How I Met Your Mother. Now he’s becoming a cult figure for his role in David Fincher’s movie Gone Girl - playing the wealthy, fastidiously dressed Desi Collings, Amy’s poignantly besotted ex-boyfriend - a “tragic straight” role.
Perhaps most importantly of all, Harris is an out gay man whose career never faltered - in fact he was able to play distinctly hetero roles. Perhaps he has precisely that smart, non-macho sensibility that Poehler’s gag hinted was the key to appreciating the tongue-in-cheek tragicomic melodrama of awards season.Perhaps most importantly of all, Harris is an out gay man whose career never faltered - in fact he was able to play distinctly hetero roles. Perhaps he has precisely that smart, non-macho sensibility that Poehler’s gag hinted was the key to appreciating the tongue-in-cheek tragicomic melodrama of awards season.
Some may be disappointed that Ellen DeGeneres hasn’t been kept on, or that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey haven’t been promoted from the Globes. They will not be surprised that Seth MacFarlane hasn’t returned, after the fiasco of his insufficiently ironised “we saw your boobs” number the previous year, or James Franco, after his faux-stoner routine alongside Anne Hathaway in 2011.Neil Patrick Harris has considerable comedy chops – having played a voice role in Family Guy, the show created by MacFarlane, and also appears in MacFarlane’s critically disliked Western spoof A Million Ways to Die in the West. He also has some track record in what could be described as the comedy of celebrity self-awareness: he plays an outrageously exaggerated version of himself in the Harold and Kumar stoner comedies. Some may be disappointed that Ellen DeGeneres hasn’t been kept on, or that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey haven’t been promoted from the Globes. They will not be surprised that Seth MacFarlane hasn’t returned, after the fiasco of his insufficiently ironised “we saw your boobs” number the previous year, or James Franco, after his faux-stoner routine alongside Anne Hathaway in 2011.Neil Patrick Harris has considerable comedy chops - having played a voice role in Family Guy, the show created by MacFarlane, and also appears in MacFarlane’s critically disliked Western spoof A Million Ways To Die In The West. He also has some track record in what could be described as the comedy of celebrity self-awareness: he plays an outrageously exaggerated version of himself in the Harold and Kumar stoner comedies.
He is, in fact, not so very far from MacFarlane, but perhaps he will have learned that snarky mickey-taking is a difficult trick to pull off. (A-listers are more likely to accept it from a Brit like Ricky Gervais.) He may also have made a career-decision involving a calculation that hosting the Oscars, however exciting, means you are one-down from the real stars and not likely to be considered an Oscar-contender yourself. It’s a tricky subject. When Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars for many years, there was a sense that his career-phase as a serious player was over, and now he was settling in to being well-loved as an avuncular showbiz host.Neil Patrick Harris isn’t like that. His Oscars gig appears to coincide with an upsurge in his career, rather than its early-autumnal maturing phase. He has some reputations to live up to, Fey, Poehler and DeGeneres having stormed the awards podium so conspicuously. But awards-season fanciers will be relishing his debut. He is, in fact, not so very far from MacFarlane: but perhaps he will have learned that snarky mickey-taking is a difficult trick to pull off. (A-listers are more likely to accept it from a Brit like Ricky Gervais.) He may also have made a career-decision involving a calculation that hosting the Oscars, however exciting, means you are one-down from the real stars and not likely to be considered an Oscar-contender yourself. It’s a tricky subject. When Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars for many years, there was a sense that his career-phase as a serious player was over, and now he was settling in to being well-loved as an avuncular showbiz host.Neil Patrick Harris isn’t like that. His Oscars gig appears to coincide with an upsurge in his career, rather than its early-autumnal maturing phase. He has some reputations to live up to - Fey, Poehler and DeGeneres having stormed the awards podium so conspicuously. But awards-season fanciers will be relishing his debut.
• Interview: Neil Patrick Harris on Gone Girl