Seth Rogen 'Oscar writers hung Franco out to dry'

Seth Rogen would only host the Oscars if they hired “better writers”.

The 50/50 star feels his friend James Franco got a raw deal when he co-hosted the Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway last year, and he wouldn’t agree to front it himself unless there were significant changes made to the way the ceremony is run.

“I think when you agree to do something like that, you put a certain amount of faith in the institution, hoping that they’ll take care of you, and I feel like they didn’t,” he said.

“Why hire James Franco and then give him Billy Crystal’s monologue? It was like, ‘Oh, we’ll hire these young hosts and then we’ll just do the same s**t we do every f***ing year.’

“Which to me was really odd. I think they just approached it wrong. They didn’t think it through, and they were way underprepared. I think they hung him out to dry. So I wouldn’t do it unless they hired some better writers.”

The 2012 Oscars have met with controversy after producer Brett Ratner made a number of ill-judged comments and was forced to stand down. His departure earlier this month was followed by scheduled host Eddie Murphy.

Billy Crystal was then announced as host, taking on the role for the ninth time.

He broke the news by tweeting, “Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward to the show.”