After the news yesterday that Brett Ratner had stepped down as producer of the Oscars following some ill-advised and homophobic comments, his chosen presenter, Eddie Murphy, has followed suit and resigned.

Murphy says, “First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”

Quite why he can’t host if Ratner isn’t producing is anyone’s guess, but apparently the two go together.

And with only a few months until the ceremony, the Academy has moved quickly to find someone to replace Ratner, settling on Brian Grazer, best known for producing Ron Howard’s movies, amongst much else. It’s difficult not to think that with gay groups now looking hard at the Oscars following Ratner’s ‘Rehearsal’s for fags’ comment, Grazer was partly chosen because he produced the somewhat gay-themed J. Edgar.

However only last year he had a bit of a gay controversy of his own over a joke included in the trailer for his movie, The Dilemma, where Vince Vaughn’s character says, “Electric cars are gay. I mean, not homosexual, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.” The joke was eventually removed from the trailer but not the film.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser