Chris Rock has ruled himself out of hosting the Oscars again.
Chris Rock
The 53-year-old comic - who previously fronted the Academy Awards in 2005 and 2016 - insisted he has no desire to step in and anchor Hollywood's biggest night, which is currently without a lead presenter following Kevin Hart's departure last month following an outcry over previous homophobic comments.
Instead, Chris thinks Steve Martin - who has previously hosted the Oscars three times, most recently with Alec Baldwin in 2010 - should return to the helm once again.
Spotting the 'Father of the Bride' star in the crowd at the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner at Tao Downtown in Manhattan on Monday (07.01.19), Chris exclaimed: "Steve Martin, you should host the Oscars! You were the best. I'm not doing that s**t! You're not getting me."
Kevin recently insisted he has no plans to step back into the hosting role, despite talk show host Ellen DeGeneres telling him she phoned the Academy and asked for him to be reinstated.
He said: "I don't have time to prepare and do it correctly."
The presenter had told him when he appeared on her eponymous show last week that she had received a positive response to her call.
She said on the show: "I called the Academy today because I really want you to host the Oscars.
"The Academy is saying what can we do to make this happen."
Recalling what the Academy told her, she said: "We want him to host, whatever we can do, we'd be thrilled."
The 39-year-old star - who has 13-month-old Kenzo with wife Eniko Parrish and Hendrix, 13, and 11-year-old Heaven with ex-wife Torrei Hart - initially promised to reconsider his decision, before later reaffirming his decision to step down.
He told Ellen: "You have put a lot of things on my mind.
"Leaving here, I'm promising you I'm evaluating this conversation. This is a conversation I needed to have. "I'm glad that I had it here. And I'm glad that it was as authentic and real as I could have hoped that it would be.
"Let me assess, just to sit in the space and really think and you and I will talk before anything else.That's my plan."
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