Regis Philbin has announced that his last day as co-host of “Live! with Regis and Kelly” will be Friday November 18th. At first he joked that he decided to push it back another five years, but then made the official announcement on the show nearly eight months after his initial statement in January.
One week earlier on Nov. 11, Philbin will appear in “Jack and Jill” – a new comedy starring Adam Sandler. So mark your calendars, because that final day will be an extraordinary show in honor of an extraordinary man.
In other news, everyone thought that Billy Crystal was the frontrunner to host next year’s Oscars, but now it looks like it’s Eddie Murphy. The 50-year old comedian will host the 84th annual Academy Awards on Sunday February 26th, 2012. Oscars producer and “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner picked Murphy as his choice.
Ratner just finished making the film “Tower Heist” with Murphy (opening November 4th). Murphy was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in 2006’s “Dreamgirls” and was part of the cast of 2001’s first “Best Animated Feature” recipient “Shrek”.
Nobody saw this coming. Many thought Crystal or Oprah or maybe Steve Martin again. Well one thing’s for sure, he has to do a better job than James Franco and Anne Hathaway did this year.
Young and old love (or at least have heard of) Eddie Murphy, so I think the ratings could go way up.
Regis and Eddie co-starred in “Shrek the Third” and “Shrek Forever After”.