Ellen DeGeneres hosts the 79th Annual Academy Awards Sunday on ABC.

Whoever ends up taking home this year's Oscars, the night's biggest winner could be Ellen DeGeneres. The droll comedian and weekday talk-show staple has landed the ultimate hosting job by presiding over the Academy Awards for the first time.

ABC airs the movie industry's 79th annual ceremony tomorrow, from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

Dreamgirls and Babel should figure into DeGeneres' remarks, since those films lead the nominations with eight and seven respectively. Still, she'll be ready to go with the moment, what ever might happen.

"It's excitement, it's anxiety, it's anticipation, all kinds of feelings," she says. "It's also busy, because it's work. February is sweeps, of course, so we're packing everything in. We tried to double up on (weekday) shows so I could have a week off before the Oscars and concentrate on that. I've always seemed to do a lot of things at once, but I really like to put all my effort and all my attention on one thing, especially with something as big as this."

Through the Golden Globe Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and every other similar event leading up to the Academy Awards, DeGeneres has felt the stakes rising for her. "Also, we've been talking about it on the show (Ellen), and it becomes more of a reality the more I talk about it. We've done a lot of Oscar-related stuff."

In many cases, that has meant interviewing guests now in the running for the statues. As comfortable as they might be on her syndicated show, named outstanding talk show at the Daytime Emmys every year since its 2003 debut, DeGeneres reasons Oscar night is "a different kind of dynamic. It's one thing for them to be on my turf, but there's a whole different vibe going on in that room.

Clint Eastwood

"Some people are nervous, and others are relaxed because they've been in it so many times - say, a Clint Eastwood (nominated again this year for directing Letters From Iwo Jima) - but mostly, they're not really paying attention to the host, and I'm very aware of that.

"It's not really about me," DeGeneres insists. "For the first five minutes, it's them realising the show is starting, and I have to walk the line of relaxing them and getting the room on my side. At the same time, I know this is going out to a lot of people who will be watching all over the world."

Indeed, while the attention level inside the Kodak Theatre may be all over the chart, DeGeneres realises her Oscar opening will count greatly where the international viewing audience is concerned.

"It'll be what I do on the show every day," she says, "that form of storytelling when I come out and do my monologue. I don't like to make fun of anyone or do anything self-deprecating, so I just have to figure out what that chunk of material is going to be. I want to keep it short at the beginning, then keep coming back. I think we should just get the show going."

Challenge yourself

Following two rounds as Grammy Awards host, DeGeneres received much praise for her 2001 hosting of the Primetime Emmy Awards, delayed twice after 9/11. "Especially with what was happening at that time in our world," she reflects, "it was a delicate balance for the humour to be there, but at the same time to be respectful of the state of our country then. The Oscars are just huge, though, and that's why I've wanted to host them for so long. You can't really challenge yourself as a host much more than this."

Also slated to be a guest on Barbara Walters' ABC Oscar-night special, DeGeneres admits it took a while to catch up with some of the major movies of 2006. She saw both Babel and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan one recent night.

"I didn't really mean to do it that way," she says. "I thought I was just going to watch Borat and leave it at that, but I put in Babel and figured I'd get through as much as I could, then watch the rest the next day. It was just so riveting, I couldn't stop ... a really, really good film."

For his turn as Oscar host in 2005, Chris Rock reportedly gathered tips at a comedy summit that included Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. DeGeneres is opting to rise or fall alone. "I think everyone's experience is their own, and to try to question somebody about what did or didn't work for them, it doesn't mean I need to apply any of those rules to me.

"I've never tried to copy or emulate anybody else's course or style, and I'm secure that what I pick is going to be right for me. Even when I did HBO specials, I'd write until I thought I was done, then take it on the road and just see what worked."

While she'll take the Oscar stage with much more than a blank slate, DeGeneres will be attuned to - and grateful for - anything else she can spin comedic gold from. Citing memorable Academy Award moments from the past, she concludes, "I can do a push-up or two, so I can start that way, then maybe we can have one of my writers streak behind me. Then I can say, 'Top that'! "

Jay Bobbin, Zap2it