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*Oscar was there – just not pictured…

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And the hosting honor goes to … Hugh Jackman.

PEOPLE’s reigning Sexiest Man Alive has been chosen to host the 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony, to take place Feb. 22

The Australia star, 40, who’ll be hosting the Oscars for the first time, was selected “because we want the ceremony to be fun,” says Laurence Mark, producer of the telecast.

“He can hold the screen and he can hold a stage. It doesn’t hurt that he looks amazing in a tuxedo and he’s the Sexiest Man Alive.”

Jackman won an Emmy in 2005 for hosting the 59th annual Tony Awards in 2004. He was also nominated as host of the Tonys in 2005.

ABC will broadcast the Oscar ceremony live on Feb. 22.

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Nicole Kidman reveals what it was like working with the “Sexiest Man Alive,” “When he comes on screen no one’s looking at me!”

Nicole tells ET she thought she hid her pregnancy well throughout the filming of their new movie, Australia, “I thought I did! Subsequently I found out that I was a hopeless secret keeper. My belly wasn’t such a good secret keeper and also because I had morning sickness and I was tired.” Nicole and husband Keith Urban gave birth to daughter Sunday Rose last July.

Shooting conditions in the rugged Outback was not easy, including incredible heat, and Hugh Jackman reveals, “Both Nic and I fainted; I fainted on the first day, which I think set the tone for the movie.” He adds, “There were dust storms, we had floods, and yet we loved every minute of it.”

What did Hugh’s wife think of the steamy kissing scenes? “The first kiss that Nicole and I have is quite long and lingering,” he says. “She leaned over to me and said, ‘Hugh that was great!’ Then about 10 minutes later in the movie there’s a montage of us kissing on the bed on the porch on the horses under horses on the hill everywhere and she said, ‘All right enough already!’”

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Pictured: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, Keith Urban, Naomi Watts & Blake Lively.