Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph's appearance on stage at the 2018 Academy Awards was one of the most memorable of the March 4 ceremony. Twitter went wild over the chemistry of the two presenters and launched a campaign to get the duo to host next years' Oscars.
Haddish said she wouldn't mind hosting the annual show—provided that her one condition was met.
The breakout star of Girls Trip discussed her interest in emceeing next year's show on Monday at the South by Southwest (SXSW) premiere of her upcoming show, The Last O.G. "I would love to do something like that. I know my father would be extremely proud if I got to do that," Haddish told audience members. "As long as I get a paycheck."
Jimmy Kimmel has served as Oscars host for two consecutive years, and in 2016 he said he was paid $15,000 for the gig—1000 percent less than his salary for Jimmy Kimmel Live! (He reportedly makes $13 million to $15 million on the show.) "I think it's illegal to pay nothing. I'm not sure I was supposed to reveal this. But nobody told me not to," Kimmel, 50, told KROQ's "Kevin & Bean" in December 2016.
But while the host of the Oscars gets a check, the presenters do not. "When I found out that we weren't getting paid, I was like, 'Well, I heard about gift bags,'" Haddish, 38, said. "And then it was like, 'We don't have no gift bags,' and I was like, 'Well, what do I get?' They were like, 'We've got a bottle of wine that's like $13.' So I got the wine."
Haddish's comedic background arguably makes her a prime candidate for Oscars host. Besides her scene-stealing role as Dina in Girls Trip, she made history last November when she became the first black female stand-up to host Saturday Night Live.
If Haddish gets the call to host the Oscars, she'd join a very exclusive club. In the 90-year history of the Academy Awards, only five hosts have been black. Chris Rock hosted the show twice (2005 and 2016), Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg—the last woman to have the gig—hosted four times (1993, 1995, 1998 and 2001), Richard Pryor twice (1977 and 1983), Sammy Davis Jr. twice (1972, 1975) and Diana Ross once (1974).
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Dory Jackson is a New York-based entertainment journalist from Maryland. She graduated from Randolph-Macon College—in May 2016—with a focus in Communication ... Read more
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