Seth Rogen slams Academy for hanging James Franco out to dry

This is why I love Seth Rogen. The guy stands up for his friends (and makes a good point, in doing so).

In an interview with Shortlist magazine, the 29 year-old actor defended his “Pineapple Express” co-star James Franco, who has been denigrated for months after hosting this past year's Oscar ceremony, saying the Academy wanted a younger and more hip kudos but delivered a script that was anything but refreshing.

"I think when you agree to do something like that, you put a certain amount of faith in the institution, hoping that they'll take care of you, and I feel like they didn't,” Rogen says.

"Why hire James Franco and then give him Billy Crystal’s monologue? It was like, 'Oh, we'll hire these young hosts and then we'll just do the same shit we do every fucking year'.”

Franco and his co-host Anne Hathaway were subsequently panned by critics for being "old and hoary," which compelled the Academy to hire a younger Oscar producer in Brett Ratner and, well, we all know how that turned out.

"I think they just approached it wrong," Rogen says. "They didn't think it through, and they were way underprepared. I think they hung him out to dry. So I wouldn't do it unless they hired some better writers."

Crystal, who stepped in for the recently departed Eddie Murphy, will host the 84^th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 26.

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