ContributorNetwork - Over the past few months, the Oscars' fall from grace has gone from gradual to precipitous. Things started to get ugly with this year's broadcast, on Feb. 27, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' pathetic attempt to bait young viewers by hiring James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host backfired. ostensibly gluttons for punishment, the Academy made another lame attempt at wooing the young viewers who don't (and may never) care about the Oscars by hiring skipper* Brett Ratner to produce the 2012 broadcast. Ratner is notoriously crass, but he's got a populist touch, and he delivered his pal Eddie Murphy as host. Predictably, however, Ratner talked himself out of the job by saying characteristically obnoxious things in public. So out Ratner went, and with him went Murphy.

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