Oklahoma's Kristin Chenoweth, Seth MacFarlane to close Sunday's Oscars with big musical number
BY RITA SHERROW World Television Editor
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Broken Arrow’s Kristin Chenoweth and first-time host Seth MacFarlane will perform in a "big musical number" at the end of Sunday's "85th Annual Academy Awards," aka the Oscars.
That's the word from the awards show's producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, according to hollywoodreporter.com.
"We want to have an actual ending," Zadan told the entertainment magazine and website. The live television show honoring achievement in film airs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC, channel 8.
"It will be one big, can't-miss thing," Meron told the website. The show usually ends with the naming of the best picture Oscar, and then the production credits roll.
Chenoweth is a Broadway star as well as an Emmy- and Tony-winning actress and singer.
She is also set to co-host "Oscars Red Carpet Live" with Grammy winner Kelly Rowland, Entertainment Weekly Managing Editor Jess Cagle and "Good Morning America" co-anchor Lara Spencer. The 90-minute special kicks off at 6 p.m. Sunday on ABC, channel 8.
Zadan and Meron told the website they recruited Chenoweth, who also starred in their Broadway production of "Promises, Promises" for the red-carpet special for a specific reason.
"We have newspeople there but we also wanted somebody who is not a newsperson, who is a star and who is friends with all these people so that the conversation can be different,” Zadan told the website.
"It's more like old friends seeing each other and getting together."
This year's Oscars will also feature a tribute to 50 years of James Bond movies – but not a reunion of Bond stars.
"There's one thing I really want to dispel right now," Zadan said in the article posted Wednesday. "The press has gone on this wild spree of predictions and have announced things that they've just made up. It was announced in the press, completely made up, that we were gathering the six James Bonds.
"We never said that. And Neil and I in no meeting that we've ever had have said, 'Let's get all the James Bonds together.' But the Bond celebration we are doing is one that we wanted to do."
Shirley Bassey, who sang the Bond themes "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever," will perform for the first time on the Oscar stage. So will Adele, nominated in the best song category for the title song for "Skyfall," who will sing the tune live for the first time.
And Barbara Streisand, who has sung only once on the show 36 years ago, will also perform an unnamed song.
Academy Award-winners Jennifer Hudson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Russell Crowe will also join this year's Oscar nominees, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, along with Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barksand and Helena Bonham Carter in a celebration honoring movie musicals of the past decade.
