Live Q&As

Well, aside from the Ashton Kutcher angle, that's a sports story. So we can probably steer clear of it, I think.

Okay, a. Lost was not a Monday show.

B. Can we compromise and put spoiler warnings if any spoilers come up? I mean, that seems fair.

C. Who else is hungry for some -- SPOILER ALERT -- pig pancreas?

I am going to doubt you will see her in Minnesota.

As promised, the Kutcher angle!

I think someone who works for him probably did. Presumably he has to approve those tweets, but maybe not.

The wording of Kutcher's tweet about "managing the Twitter feed" more carefully suggests he has minions doing it. Which makes sense given his schedule.

Man, I would love to have minions some day. Minions who tweet for you are the new American dream.

I think Tom Hanks is the wisest choice, but that Dr. Teeth concept was really appealing to me.

Also, if they shot Gonzo out of a cannon and into the Oscar audience -- come on,  that would be fantastic.

Wait, what?

Your ex-boyfriend was on TMZ discussing Justin Bieber? More information, please.

It is indeed puzzling.

Even if somehow you had missed the reports about it over the past several days, the natural thing to do would be to ask, wait, why did they fire Paterno? prior to tweeting about it.

I don't think any media coverage of the story has reported his firing without immediately attributing it to the molestation case, so it's hard to know where the disconnect happened. Unless one of the aforementioned minions saw that someone else tweeted "Paterno got fired!" and just reacted.

Sorry, we are veering into Paterno territory. Will try to keep things on track.

I did not watch, but I believe most of these people have stylists. Which is why, like you, I am often perplexed in general as to how celebs wind up going to events looking less than terrific.

My theory is that stylists sometimes suggest dresses that look edgy or hip but just don't translate well on television. At the Oscars, I have definitely seen people who stunned me in person and then in a photo, the dress just didn't look as flattering.

That's the first thing a good stylist should think about: how is this going to look in photographs and on live television in HD? Because those are the images that ultimately matter.

You could, but I'd also like to have as many live chatters as possible.

I will post a promised spoiler alert if anything spoilery is going to be said.

Wait, who's the top notch journalist?

The Celebritology tweets either come from me, or are automated to spit out the latest posts in the blog. (Which is more like a robot than a minion.)

At my much more modest @chaneyj account, I tweet myself. Which is why the Tweets are far more sporadic. And my number of followers is kind of pathetic.

The truth is now out there.

Is this coming from Sarah Hughes? Because Sarah and I had this conversation this morning and she was advocating McCarthy. Which I am not all opposed to. But I wasn't sure if it might seem like a bit too much too soon for McCarthy.

The Oscar hosting gig seems like something you have to earn.

In any case, any of the people mentioned above would do a fine job, and some of them have in the past. It's a question of whether the Academy wants to go tried and true or strike out in a new direction. I think they should choose someone they know will do a good job and build an ad campaign whose slogan is: "The Oscars are too long, filled with awards that some of you may find boring and a little self-congratulatory. Deal with it."

Seriously, can we abandon the effort to try to sell the Oscars as something they are not? You either care about movies a lot and want to watch them (and I do) or you don't care that much and you only pay mild attention. The show is never going to satisfy those who already are only half-interested in the first place.

I said in my intro I was three minutes late.

It's an improvement over last week's seven-minute delay, so I consider it a victory.

Very interesting. Your co-workers were undoubtedly impressed.

So based on your knowledge of said ex, do you think this lawsuit is credible or not? You probably won't answer that, but hey, I had to ask.

Are you kidding?

After last year, there is no way he would do it again. And that's probably for the best.

Interesting. It probably has something to do with syndication deals or something. I'm just guessing.

That might be a bit more political than they'd prefer to be. Although Jon Stewart did it, so hey, why not?

I am not sure that's it.

I think Murphy knows that if he doesn't have a producer who will support him doing the kind of comedy he wants to do, he'll wind up in a lot of arguments and/or having to do a lot of bits he doesn't want to do.

I am sure I've told this story before, but I once asked Wanda Sykes about hosting the Oscars and she said she would not do it because of the way the host's signature style often gets watered down. The emcee doesn't always get to be him or herself. (Sykes was one of the writers working on Chris Rock's Oscar stuff, so she knows whereof she speaks.)

Spoiler alert (sort of):

Lange's line was meant to be funny, I thought. The story about a murdered maid obviously conjures thoughts of what Constance did to Moira, hence her tongue-in-cheek comment.

Thanks for the kudos. I swear that Paul are not watching ahead of our recaps either. But I think we may seem wise because some of the things that happen on this show are a little obvious. Certainly not all, but some.

"Despicable Me."

Which is also the title of Kutcher's apology tweet -- just kidding!

It is beyond my mental powers to imagine having 20 children. Just completely beyond.

One and a dog is hard enough for me.

Or not.

Time out: she's a professional ghost tweeter?

That is fascinating. I'd love to talk to her just about what her job is like.

There was a story about a potential investigation on that side of things. But first, paternity or at least evidence of a relationship would have to be proven.

And so far, Bieber contends he never met the woman.

I personally think she'd be great.

But I think the Academy tends to want more established hosts or movie stars. I'm not saying she's not qualified, just that they may not see her as having earned her "movie star" stripes yet.

Also, being a good host is about more than being funny. She may have that skill but she hasn't had the opportunity to prove it yet at such a high-profile event.

Yes, Chris Rock. Whoopi Goldberg. I believe Sidney Poitier may have been a co-host at one point but would have to check that.

On a totally unrelated note, someone in the office brought in pork ribs. So now the office smells like pig product. Between that and American Horror Story, I cannot escape pigs!

It smells really good, though. Much better (I assume) than uncooked offal.

We have social media editors and producers, too, but they do things other than tweet.

And that's also different from ghost tweeting, which is a fascinating career.

Also, breaking Kutcher news, which is going into the blog shortly: he says he actually was doing all his tweeting himself, but he is going to turn over his feed to his management from now on.

I am betting he loses some followers as a result. But I applaud his transparency.

Hey, why hasn't anyone suggested Ricki Rachtman for this job? That would be an unexpected way to go.

I made a Crystal prediction. And I actually think it might not be bad at all. As I said in my post today, it would be familiar but comforting.

Hey, nice to hear from you!

This sounds like a solid idea for an SNL sketch.

I was joking.

That said, I am sure you are a celebrity or deserve to be one.

Oprah has been suggested.

I fear that might push the Oscars into sanctimonious territory that would be truly unprecedented.

Technically, it's a list of best dressed siblings. But how they rankled higher than Kate and Pippa is beyond me.

Oh wait, I know -- because putting the Olsens at the top makes us talk about it more. Dang it, Vogue. You win yet another round.

As long as you keep the show on so the ads are seen by your eyeballs, that's fine by ABC.

I think it's hilarious that people are already in line for the premiere. For some reason, I get immense joy out of over-the-top hype for pop cultural events. That level of fan devotion, even if you don't agree with it, is sort of impressive.

He was still actively tweeting, but I can't say I've done a scientific study of his Twitter patterns since the show began production.

Well, you could say the same thing about Jon Stewart. The different is that he's had experience hosting. I think you really need one or the other -- movie cred or hosting cred. Or, preferably, both.

Yeah, that was definitely a weird detail.

Also, the notion that he could just walk away from a meet-and-greet with fans, by himself, with one of those fans sounds odd, too.

I have no idea whether it's true, but Yeater has to be able to produce indisputable proof. Presumably she knew that before filing her suit. But we'll see.

I was interested. In fact, I was just thinking, "Man, I wish I knew what Tyler Clippard's number is."

Thank you for meeting my needs before I could even articulate them.

Lord, I hope so.

All right, y'all. I have to roll. It's been a pleasure. Let's chat again next week, which, if you can believe it, is our last chat before Thanksgiving. How is time going by so fast??

Thanks, everyone.