Oscar loves Gervais?

Having already slagged on last year's Oscar telecast today, let us be clear about one thing -- it wasn't Jon Stewart's fault. That guy was working his arse off.

Now that he's out of the game, at least for the upcoming February, let's just blame uber-Oscar-producer Gil Cates for the flat, montage-a-minute show. For the sake of argument, OK?

But enough with the finger pointing (not really, we'll come back to it later). We've learned that there's a new team in town, first-time Oscar shepherds Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, and we're psyched to see what they come up with.

Could that plan also involve Emmy show savior Ricky Gervais?

Hollywood Insider says it could.

We already pegged Gervais as a potential Emmy host. In fact, in the heat of the moment -- our Live Blogging Extravaganza! -- we threw out suggestions ranging from the Emmy-winning funny man to Josh Groban to Don Rickles to a house plant to take over Emmy duties next year. Any or all would be more entertaining than the leaden quintet that we and 12.3 million of you unlucky folks at home had to endure.

The idea of a Gervais-led Oscarcast is an intriguing one. That gig has proven to be a no-win proposition for anybody who isn't Billy Crystal, Steve Martin or Ellen DeGeneres. Is it worth the risk for Gervais? That might be what his camp is pondering today as they field a slew of exploratory phone calls.