Neil Patrick Harris the fourth choice for Oscars host

Neil Patrick Harris snagged the 2015 Oscars hosting gig, but he wasn’t producers’ top choice for the job, there were three others they wanted before him.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron “begged” last year’s host, Ellen DeGeneres, to return for another round. When she declined, they reached out to Chris Rock, who last hosted the Oscars in 2005. When that didn’t work out, they reached out to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who also said no.

That left the fourth name on the list: Neil Patrick Harris, who had previously hinted that he might be up for the job. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Harris said that the offer to host the Oscars had suddenly come up “very randomly,” just days before Variety formally broke the news.

Agencies/Canadajournal