To the surprise of no one who's had anything to do with the Academy Awards for the past three decades, the Oscars have named Michael B. Seligman the supervising producer of the 84th Academy Awards.

This will mark Seligman's 35th year on the Oscar show, much of that time as the Oscar show's money man, negotiating contracts and dealing with the logistics of an enormous and complicated operation. He's also the person who originally came up with the idea for gift baskets to attract Oscar presenters.

Longtime Oscar-watchers now assume that the next step for co-producers Brett Ratner and Don Mischer will be to bring aboard Danette Herman to supervise the show's talent ... but that's another press release for another day.

Oscars