Are the information-gathering cycles getting so short that the fact that someone's NOT doing something is actually considered news? Apparently so, since Yahoo! and the AP saw fit to put out a story about how Chris Rock is NOT hosting the Oscars next year. The comedian's publicist even went so far as to e-mail the AP that Rock is NOT hosting. "He did not elaborate," according to the article.

No kidding. On what is there to elaborate? He did it last year, draining all the testosterone and most of the humor out of his comedy to satisfy a worldwide audience, and doesn't feel like going through the same fresh hell this year. Heck, even Billy Crystal didn't host every year; if he did, we wouldn't have been subjected to Whoopi Goldberg four times. Anyway, AP, wake us up when they actually select a host; I don't want to be reading an article tomorrow about how Steve Martin isn't hosting, either.