• Variety, Monday, December 15, 2008 9:30 AM

The signing of actor Hugh Jackman as host of the ratings-challenged Oscars is a signal that "we are trying to give the evening more of a nightclub-party feel," says the show's producer Laurence Mark. So don't expect a stand-up monologue at the start of this year's program. "Since it's a celebration of movies, we wanted a movie star," rather than a stand-up comic, he says.

Mark and exec producer Bill Condon say their goal is to keep the show brisk and fast-moving. But that's no easy task since the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences insists that two dozen awards be presented on the air.
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Jackman, who has been busy promoting his latest movie "Australia," will no doubt will get a few plugs during the Oscars for his new project, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which bows May 1.

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