Is Ellen DeGeneres Hosting 2014 Oscars to Counter Seth MacFarlane's Misogyny This Year?

August 2nd, 2013 3:05 PM

It was announced Friday that Ellen DeGeneres will host next year's Academy Awards.

Was this in response to Seth MacFarlane's misogynistic display at this year's Oscars presentaion?

For those that have forgotten, MacFarlane:

  • Sang a song about Oscar-nominated actresses entitled "We Saw Your Boobs"
  • Joked about Chris Brown's battery of Rihanna
  • Suggested nine-year-old best actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis would grow up to have sex with George Clooney
  • Mocked the Kardashians as being hairy
  • Suggested Jennifer Aniston was once a stripper.

The Academy came under a lot of heat for this display. It seems conceivable it felt obligated to give the hosting position to a woman in 2014.

But as The Hollywood Reporter observed Friday, when DeGeneres hosted the Oscars seven years ago, she received "decent but not great ratings and polite but not ecstatic reviews."

As such, why her? Could her sexual orientation also be a factor?

As THR noted, the original producer of the 2012 Academy Awards Brett Ratner was forced to resign from that position due to homophobic remarks he made in November 2011. 

With this in mind, DeGeneres could be just what the doctor ordered to distance the Academy from MacFarlane's misogyny as well as Ratner's gay slur.