Chris Rock has been given what some see as the ultimate honour in showbusiness - but this year hosting the Oscars is a double-edged sword.
The comedian and actor is going to have to balance humour and the politics over lack of diversity while still celebrating the past year's biggest films.
Rock was chosen to host Sunday's event at the Dolby Theatre for a second time last October - long before the #OscarsSoWhite row erupted.
He first hosted in 2005 and many have agreed that he is the perfect choice to take the helm this year.
"He's really good at skewering show business and at skewering race relations in this country," said Variety's Tim Gray.
"I think Chris Rock will address the diversity issue head on, which is exactly what the show and the Academy need."
Rock, 51, has kept silent during the uproar over the 20 all-white actors nominated for a second year in a row.
He declined to join the fray, even after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose 6,200 members vote on the Oscars, announced it would double the number of minorities and women in its ranks in the next four years.
The Academy has drawn on talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Neil Patrick Harris in the past two years for hosting duties, but this year, having Rock return gives the Academy a chance to look good in front of a TV audience of some 40 million in America and millions more worldwide.
Even in uncontroversial years, hosting the Oscars can be a thankless task in which a good host may be praised briefly but a bad job - like the awkward 2011 stint by Anne Hathaway and James Franco - is remembered for years.
Rock also has to keep moving a three-and-a-half-hour live show aimed principally at celebrating the year in movies and entertaining Hollywood's biggest players, as well as television viewers.
He will have to walk a fine line between going too far or not going far enough.
But one thing is for sure, he is never going to please everyone.
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