Cirque du Soleil to perform at Oscar awards

LOS ANGELES — Spectacular Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil will perform as part of this year's Oscars show, organizers said Friday.

The one-off performance, part of the February 26 Academy Awards show, will feature the largest Cirque cast ever assembled for a single act, with over 50 artists involved.

They will perform to music by Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman, who scored the Cirque du Soleil's show cinema-themed show "IRIS," currently being performed at the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are put on.

The 84th Academy Awards will take place next Sunday at the theater on Hollywood Boulevard, with a string of A-list celebrities among those on stage, as well as in the audience.

Veteran Oscars host Billy Crystal will steer the evening's entertainment, after stepping in when actor Eddie Murphy quit in November due to a row over anti-gay remarks by a producer, who also left.

The Kodak Theatre, which has hosted the Academy Awards for the last decade, will no longer bear the Kodak name as a result of the iconic photographic company's bankruptcy, a court ruled this week.

The Academy -- which is still referring to the Kodak Theatre in its press releases -- also announced Friday that Muppet A-listers Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will present at this year's show.

Others already lined up to present include Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez and Melissa McCarthy.

Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" is nominated in the most categories, with 11 nods, followed by 10 for silent film hit "The Artist."

Other films up for Best Picture include "The Descendants," "The Help," "Moneyball," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "The Tree of Life," as well as Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris."

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