Hollywood's 2005 box office woes has its new year's hangover. According to the L.A. Times, Jon Stewart will be hosting the Oscars this year, to ensure that the show is even more politicized than last year's, and probably with similar results in the ratings, as the Times article foreshadows:

But the barbed political humor of his nightly show on Comedy Central figures to make Stewart a perfect fit for the Oscars, especially in a year when many contenders--including "Brokeback Mountain," "Good Night, and Good Luck, " "Crash," "Munich," "Syriana" and "The Constant Gardener"--feature political and social themes.

Stewart will reportedly take at least a week off from "The Daily Show" to prepare for the Oscars, though hosts often spend far longer preparing for the task. Billy Crystal, in particular, often took a couple of months to plan, shoot and assemble his opening film and craft his song medley.

Update: Scott Ott "reports" that Old Hollywood will have a rebuttal to its four-hour love fest this year:

Just hours after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Comedy Channel news anchor Jon Stewart to host this year’s Academy Awards show, the White House announced that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been tapped to deliver the GOP response.

The Oscars Rebuttal Show, part of ABC-TV’s commitment to fairness, will attempt to refute and debunk the anti-Bush administration remarks that naturally flow from Mr. Stewart and his colleagues as they give little golden statues to people who make up stories and who pretend to be other people.

The White House expects to receive equal time for Mr. Rumsfeld to present the Bush administration perspective, raising concerns about the septuagenarian’s life expectancy and stamina. Insiders say that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be waiting in the wings as Mr. Rumsfeld’s understudy.

Mr. Stewart, host of The Daily Show, a parody news program, is perhaps best known for telling CNN’s Tucker Carlson: “I’m not going to be your monkey,” when Mr. Carlson challenged Mr. Stewart to be funny on Crossfire.

A spokesman for the Academy, in announcing the emcee deal today, said, “Now, we know whose monkey Jon Stewart is.”