Oscar organizers say no Oprah - not yet (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Oscars, Oprah; Oprah, Oscars. One can almost hear David Letterman saying it.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Friday that talk show queen and cable network owner Oprah Winfrey has emerged as a top candidate to host the Academy Awards next February, but the event's organizers quickly shot down the speculation.

The Sun-Times, citing unnamed sources inside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said organizers feel Winfrey's presence would expand the show's audience and, given that her daytime talk show ended only recently, they believe she will lure her legions of fans to the 84th Oscar show in February.

But officially, the academy isn't talking -- yet.

"Every year there's always great interest and excitement about who will host the Oscars," the academy said in a statement. "This is a wonderful example of just that, and at this point, there is nothing for us to comment on regarding who is or is not on the rumored Oscar host list."

Should Winfrey host the show, she would become the third solo female to do so behind Whoopi Goldberg -- who hosted four times -- and Ellen DeGeneres.

Earlier this year, actress Anne Hathaway co-hosted the Oscars with James Franco in an attempt by the Academy to lure in younger viewers.

However, only 37.6 million Americans watched the ceremony, making the telecast one of the least-watched Academy Awards shows of the past 10 years. It was down nearly 10 percent from the 41.7 million who tuned in the previous year when Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-hosted.

Comedian Letterman hosted the show in 1995 and was panned by critics for his performance after starting off with a poorly received comic bit in which he introduced Winfrey to actress Uma Thurman, saying "Oprah, Uma; Uma, Oprah," because they both have unusual first names.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110708/en_nm/us_oscars

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