Ellen steps onto Oscar stage

BURBANK, Calif. — On Sunday, Ellen DeGeneres will make good on a six-year-dream.

She's had her eye on hosting the Oscars since her turn as the Emmy Awards frontwoman in 2001.

"I thought, well this is fun, and if I'm going to do this, I should do the biggest one of all," says the 49-year-old comedian, who's tinier and more intense than she appears on TV. "I've been hoping they would ask me for probably six years now."

She finally got the invitation a few months ago and has been working overtime ever since.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show," a weekday talk show, consumes a full workweek. The gregarious host typically arrives at the studio at 11 a.m., writes the monologue, prepares with producers for the day's guests, hits hair and makeup, then tapes the show. By the time she heads home in her brand-new smoke gray Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, it's past dinner time.

Lately, DeGeneres has doubled-up on her talk show, taping two episodes a day. That way she can focus on Oscar for a full week before the awards and still have fresh shows airing while she's absent.

It's a lot of work — "crazy, just nonstop," she says — but she's fueled by excitement. As a lifelong movie fan, she's "honored" to host Hollywood's biggest night. And as an entertainer, she's eager to take on one of the biggest challenges of her career.

"Some people rock-climb and some people skydive. I host the Oscars," says DeGeneres, sitting cross-legged on a slouchy brown sofa at her NBC office. "It's thrilling, knowing that it's not an easy job and that there are not too many people who can do something like this."

She spends nights and weekends working with her Oscar writers, but ideas percolate at all hours. The show monologue came to her in the shower two months ago, she says.

"I wrote the entire thing," she says. "Of course, two weeks later, I threw it away."

DeGeneres is inspired by this year's nominees, she says, not by past Oscar shows.

She doesn't have any childhood memories of the Academy Awards, though they were an annual event in her Louisiana home.

"My parents were very impressed by Hollywood and stars, so I'm sure we watched it," she says, adding that she watched the Oscars with more interest once she became a professional performer.