Oscars 2013: Stars hit red carpet at Oscar

Fans have pondered how far MacFarlane the impudent creator of "Family Guy," might push the normally prim and proper Oscars.

MacFarlane may be a wild card, but as for the show itself, predictability could be the Academy Awards\' middle name. This time looks the same, with clear favorites in the main categories.

So Oscar organizers hope they\'ve assembled a show that will be good time on its own performance merits, with wily, bawdy writer, director, animator, singer and all-around vocal talent MacFarlane as host and a ceremony packed with song and dance.

The awards themselves do hold some potential firsts and other rarities.

Ben Affleck\'s "Argo" looks like it will be an uncommon film to claim best picture without a directing nomination, while "Lincoln" filmmaker Steven Spielberg and star Daniel Day-Lewis are favored to join exclusive lists of three-time Oscar winners.

If some longshots came in, the night could produce two more three-time acting winners — Sally Field from "Lincoln" and Robert De Niro for "Silver Linings Playbook."

There\'s also a chance of the oldest or youngest acting winner ever — 86-year-old "Amour" star Emmanuelle Riva and 9-year-old Wallis for "Beasts."

The ABC broadcast itself could set some fresh highs or lows. Oscar overseers keep talking about pacing and trimming fat from a ceremony that\'s dragged on interminably, approaching four and a half hours one year. Can they keep it tight and lively enough that viewers don\'t think about gouging out their eyes around the three-hour mark?

And what about host MacFarlane? He\'s a classy, low-key guy in person, with an old-fashioned Sinatra-style singing voice that he\'ll no doubt put to use in a show that\'s shaping up as a music-heavy, Broadway-style celebration of cinema.

Yet MacFarlane\'s career is built on pushing the envelope — or crumpling it and tossing it in the trash — as he\'s tested the boundaries of good taste with such brazen shows as his animated series "Family Guy" and last summer\'s F-bomb-laden blockbuster "Ted," which earned him a songwriting Oscar nomination.

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