When the world ends, James Franco will still be busy.  He makes smart young people feel like crap about bemoaning their modern conditions.  On Sunday, he will co-host the Oscars with Anne Hathaway (obviously a move by the Academy to interest young people in order to fight against the declining amount of viewersof the cultured awards show).  

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Franco has earned the right to call himself many things: Oscar-nominated actor, published writer, director, performance artist, visual artist, Ph.D candidate, soap opera star, cologne model, heartthrob, etc., etc., etc.  He has attended about six universities (soon might be seven), has a couple Masters degrees in film and creative writing, and (oh yeah) acts in about three movies a year.  Legend has it that, once returning to UCLA as an undergrad when he was 28, he took up to 63 units of classes in one quarter.  

In terms of media, the guy’s face and smile are everywhere: Funny or Die, YouTube, magazine covers…just about every person who cares about culture is befuddled by his incredible ability to focus on so many different things at once.  Just about the only thing he hasn’t tried yet is porn.   

So he’s hosting the Oscars, too.  This is James Franco’s genius: that he’s either pulling a large performance act on the whole voyeuristic world or he’s got the most incredible case of reverse-ADD that Internet-era America has ever seen.  

By the way, he’s also nominated in the Best Actor category for his role in the Danny Boyle arm-sawing drama “127 Hours.”  No Oscar host nominated for the award has ever won.