Yes, Tig Notaro Is Serious About Hosting the Oscars—and She’ll Go Topless to Do It
Comedian Tig Notaro is willing to bare all to host the Oscars. In an open letter posted to her website this week, the Transparent actor and former Inside Amy Schumer writer listed 11 reasons why she’s the “obvious choice” to host the 2016 ceremony. Among them: Like this year’s host, Neil Patrick Harris, during his gag about the Oscar-winning movie Birdman, she is happy to go topless onstage.
A breast cancer survivor, Notaro opted out of reconstructive surgery after undergoing a double mastectomy, and she bared her scars for all to see during her Boyish Girl Interrupted stand-up tour in L.A. and New York last winter. After this year’s Oscars drew mixed reviews at best, talk in Hollywood has already to turned to who will replace Harris next year. Some have even suggested the gig is so tough that the Oscars shouldn’t be hosted by anyone at all. But is Notaro really serious about performing onstage during Hollywood’s biggest awards show?
Yes, she confirmed to TakePart in an email. “Just hearing everyone’s different opinions about NPH, I figured I’d take the pressure off of him and everyone else that may be in consideration next year and just do this myself.” Notaro has a point. After all, Harris didn’t exactly woo audiences with his off-color jabs at Oprah, Octavia Spencer, and David Oyelowo, among others.
“I’m certain hosting a huge awards show like that has to be utter insanity, BUT, I truly feel like I could do it,” she added. Besides, as her website letter details, the Oscars gig would be a breeze, at least compared with one of the most nerve-wracking comedy sets of her life, when she revealed to a Los Angeles audience in 2012 that she had cancer. Additionally, she wrote in the letter, fans in middle America often tell her she looks “EXACTLY” like Ellen Degeneres, who has hosted the Oscars twice, in 2007 and 2014.
Certainly, the Oscars could benefit from Notaro helming its ceremony. In 87 years, only two female hosts have ever graced the Oscars stage solo: Degeneres and four-time host Whoop Goldberg. The gender gap among TV hosts also extends to talk shows. While women account for more than one-third of the top television hosts, they earn 28 percent of what men earn as hosts, with Oprah being the only exception, according to Tiffani Lennon’s 2014 book Recognizing Women’s Leadership: Strategies and Best Practices for Employing Excellence.
But if Notaro were to host the Oscars, she said via email, she’d improve the show by ignoring Oprah completely, unlike Harris, who compared Oprah’s wealth to that of America Sniper’s box-office earnings. (The joke didn’t exactly go over well.) Another tip Notaro offered via email: “Orchestrate massive falls by each presenter and winner as they make their way to the podium. People love those moments," as evidenced by the reaction to Madonna’s fall at the Brit Awards Wednesday night.
Other reasons Notaro listed as support for her cause: “I live relatively close to the theater and wouldn’t be late” and “I’ve only seen Grease and Star Wars, so after-party chitchat will be a definite strength.” By the end of the letter, it begins to read like a parody of Sheryl Sandberg’s “lean in” philosophy, which was recently criticized by 25-year-old Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams in response to fan pressure for Williams to host the Daily Show.
Notaro assured us that the letter was all her idea, and unlike the Williams campaign didn’t originate as a suggestion from fans. Once framed as a feminist stance, the “lean in” ideology that suggests women are held back because of their own lack of self-confidence rather than external forces has since come under scrutiny. When Billfold writer Ester Bloom suggested that Williams needed to lean in to get hired as the new host of The Daily Show, Williams tweeted in response: “No offense, but Lean the F*** away from me for the next couple of days. I need a minute.”
“I understand where Jessica is coming from, but just as a side note, I’d love to see her host someday. She’s truly exceptional,” Notaro said via email.
Despite her moving open letter, Notaro has yet to hear back from the Academy. But she hasn’t given up hope just yet. “They still have some time to reach out to me though,” she told us. “And if I’m totally honest, I’d even consider hosting in 2017. Can someone let them know that as well?”
Original article from TakePart
