David Letterman marks the 25th anniversary of his Oprah-Uma Oscar-hosting disaster, thinks Kevin Hart would make a great host

The Hollywood Reporter

In an extensive phone interview with The Hollywood Reporter on the 1995 Oscars, which actually took place on March 27, 1995, Letterman said: "I just want to thank you and the entire show business community for helping me to celebrate 25 years after the single biggest professional embarrassment of my life." Letterman also recalled his Oprah-Uma bit playing on the first names of Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves, who were all in attendance that night. "And by the way, this is a solid idea that I would do today if those three people were ever in the same room with me again — which seems unlikely, now that I think about it," he says, adding that "one of the mistakes that I made was I didn’t tell anybody." Letterman says that he doesn't think losing the Oprah-Uma bit would've changed the disastrous evening. And yet, Letterman says he was invited back to host the Oscars two more times. "And I don’t how know that happened — maybe a new guy came in who hadn’t seen the original?" he says. "And I considered it and then I thought, 'What, are you crazy? No!' Because I knew the same thing would happen again." Letterman also said that Kevin Hart, before his gay slur controversy, was a "genius choice" to host the Oscars, recalling how terrific Hart was in his Late Show debut without submitting to a pre-interview.