Franco feels the heat

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Six weeks after Academy Awards producers announced he would be co-hosting this year’s ceremony, James Franco still seems amazed he has the job.

“You’ve got to believe me, no one was more surprised than I was — with maybe the exception of Anne [Hathaway, his co-emcee] — when told the Academy wanted me to do this,” Franco said Saturday at the 22nd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, where he presented the Sonny Bono Visionary Award to his “127 Hours” director, Danny Boyle.

“Talk about pressure! I just hope we don’t embarrass ourselves or the Academy,” said Franco with a laugh. When a nearby wag zinged, “Yeah, you don’t want to pull a Letterman!” — a reference to David Letterman’s ill-fated stab at hosting in 1995 — Franco diplomatically didn’t take the bait.

† The actor already is getting into hosting mode. Before hopping over to Palm Springs, he had been in Los Angeles, working with Hathaway on early planning for the big night on Feb. 27.

BABY BEAT: “I feel like we’re in the maternity ward tonight,” Javier Bardem joked as he arrived for the awards gala. The actor — honored with the festival’s International Star Award (“Which I guess means you don’t understand me when I speak English”) — was talking about being in the company both of his very pregnant wife Penelope Cruz and Natalie Portman, expecting her first child with her partner and “Black Swan” co-star Benjamin Millepied.

† Portman, honored herself Saturday with the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award, introduced Bardem by saying he had “taken me to all the gay bars in Madrid” when the two shot “Goya’s Ghosts” together. Bardem got the last word after accepting his trophy from Portman. The straight actor said, “I took her to gay bars because that was the only place Natalie would be safe in Madrid!”

MORE HUMOR: The night was filled with some good lines. As Jake Gyllenhaal introduced Portman, he claimed — obviously in jest — that he originally met the actress “waiting in a line to have her sign my Queen Amidala doll,” referencing her role in the “Star Wars” films. “I sure hope she wins that Oscar [for ‘Black Swan’] this year — because then that doll is going to worth a s---load of money!”

† Colin Firth (Desert Palm Achievement Actor Award for “The King’s Speech”) had fun telling his presenter — Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for playing Elizabeth II in “The Queen” — “you can call me Dad,” since he plays George VI in the film many expect will land Firth his first Academy Award.

† Before handing Ben Affleck an award, Amy Ryan called him a truly multi-dimensional filmmaker, as an actor, director and writer. “He’s really another Orson Welles, only with better abs.” … Hearing that, Robert Duvall joked, “Ben may be Orson Welles with better abs, but I’m going off now to work [on a new film] with the hillbilly Orson Welles — Billy Bob Thornton!”

SERIOUS STUFF: The November slaying of top Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, who long had promoted the Palm Springs festival, was on the mind of many guests. Noted songwriter Diane Warren, a longtime Chasen friend and client, said she doesn’t buy the official police analysis of the crime.

“ I just don’t believe it was a random thing. … I have no idea what was behind it, but there is more to this and someday the truth will come out,” said Warren, who later gave a touching tribute to Chasen after accepting the festival’s Frederick Loewe Music Award.

THE LOCAL ANGLE: A sizeable contingent of Windy City very visibles was among the 1,800 guests at the gala Saturday night, including newly engaged Brenda Sexton and her fiance, businessman Greg Nye; Chaz Ebert (who took a brief break from working on the launch of husband Roger’s film review show); Linda Johnson Rice; Desiree Rogers; Vicki and Bill Hood; Mamie Walton; Nancy Kelley; Arny Granat and Irene Michaels; Jerry Berliant — plus Jon Siskel, whose “Louder Than a Bomb” documentary about Chicago’s youth poetry slam is screening at the festival, and Chicago native and major film producer Albert Berger (“Little Miss Sunshine”).