Two wild and crazy guys go to the Oscars

NBC has won the latest round of trophy-show one-upmanship it had been waging against ABC, when the Motion Picture Academy announced late Tuesday that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin would co-host the 82nd Academy Awards.

No, NBC is not broadcasting the Academy Awards -- ABC is, on March 7. NBC airs the Globes, on Jan 17.

And yes, the Baldwin/Martin-hosted Oscars on ABC will probably, like other years, clock nearly twice as many viewers as the Golden Globes (though the Globes broadcast is no slouch with its 20 million-ish viewers, often beating the Primetime Emmy Awards and rivaling the viewership of the Grammy Awards).

But in addition to co-hosting the Oscars, Martin and Baldwin are co-starring in an upcoming movie called "It's Complicated" that's coming out Christmas Day, so the Oscars show will be one big, fat wet kiss to that new movie -- and that kiss will be seen by 35 million to 40 million viewers.

"It's Complicated" is produced by NBC Universal.

NBC wins.

It's unusual, but not unprecedented, for the Academy Awards to have more than one host. Ironically, the news about Martin and Baldwin co-hosting was announced by this year's Oscar co-producers, Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, who noted that Martin will bring the experience of having hosted the show before -- the 73rd and 75th -- while Baldwin will be "a completely fresh personality for this event."

More in the "plus" column for NBC: Both men are well-known as the two most frequent hosts of its late-night franchise, "Saturday Night Live."

And though Baldwin is a perennial Emmy winner for playing evil NBC suit Jack Donaghy on NBC's ratings-starved, critically heralded "30 Rock" -- and his annual acceptance speech is always one of that trophy show's highlights -- those wins have typically been seen by a puny audience compared with the one he will command on Oscar night.

"I don't play the banjo but I'm thrilled to be hosting the Oscars -- it's the opportunity of a lifetime," Baldwin said in a canned quote that went with Tuesday's announcement, while banjo-playing Martin chimed in with: "I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin."

Baldwin really is a fresh face for the Oscars, having been last nominated in 2003 for his supporting role in "The Cooler." That's also the last time he showed up at the trophy show as a presenter. Martin's a veteran, including those two solo flights as host.

Just last week, NBC scored a coup in the trophy-show rivalry when it announced that Ricky Gervais, who has provided many trophy shows with their most jaw-dropping moments, would host its broadcast of the Golden Globes.