Eddie Murphy Bows Out of the Oscars [VIDEO]

Eddie Murphy has stepped down as this year's host of The 84th Annual Academy Awards after his friend Brett Ratner was replaced as the awards show's producer. Ratner resigned as Oscars producer after getting flak for making a gay slur. Ratner produced "Tower Heist", Eddie's latest movie and was replaced with another producer of that same movie, Brian Grazer. Murphy tells the Associated Press, "I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop." And I was looking forward to it as well.

Past hosts such as Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackson, though actors-extraordinaire, didn't quite come up to Billy Crystal-status, and I think the potential was there that Eddie would have made Oscar night truly memorable. I was one of his biggest fans when he was on Saturday Night Live and the great characters he created. One of my favorites: Buckwheat. Check it out.