Vanessa Hudgens will return to host the Countdown to the Oscars for the second year in a row - but it may lead to one awkward encounter for the actress.
The 34-year-old's ex-boyfriend Austin Butler is nominated for Best Actor at this year's ceremony, and the pair's friendship status remains up in the air. As previously reported, Austin, 31, failed to give Vanessa the credit many felt she was owed for suggesting he go for the role of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis, which went on to earn him multiple awards, his first Oscar nomination, and A-list status.
WATCH: Trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic with Austin Butler
Vanessa will be joined by Lilly Singh and Ashley Graham for the official lead-in to the 95th Oscars and it will air at 6.30/5.30c on ABC, highlighting Oscar nominees, performers and presenters, and giving fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the celebration.
Austin and Vanessa dated for nine years before they split in 2020.They met through their mutual best friend, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa's co-star in the High School Musical trilogy, and Austin's in its spin-off, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure.
Two years after their split, Austin shared that it was a "friend" who encouraged him to audition for the role, sharing on The Hollywood Reporter's Actor's Roundtable: "The month before I heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making the movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend, and there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was singing along, and my friend looked over at me and goes, 'You've got to play Elvis.'
"I said, 'Oh, that's such a long shot.' A couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano - I never really sang for any of my friends or anything - and that same friend was there and I was playing the piano. She said, 'I'm serious. You gotta figure out how you can get the rights to a script.' Then my agent called and said, 'So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film.'"
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Vanessa and Austin dated for nine years
Austin later gave her credit in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, referring to the "friend" as his "partner at the time".
He added: "We’d been together for so long and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really — I owe her a lot for believing in me."
Vanessa is now engaged to baseball Cole Tucker; the pair first sparked romance rumors in November 2020, when they were spotted out on a date in Los Angeles, and Cole dropped to one knee at the end of 2022 Vanessa and Cole met on a Zoom-based meditation session in 2020.
MORE: Austin Butler reveals heartbreaking connection to Elvis Presley ahead of biopic release date
Vanessa is now engaged to Cole Tucker
Speaking to Entertainment Today shortly after announcing that she and Cole were a couple, Vanessa jokingly admitted: "Very random, yes!" before adding: "Zoom – you gotta love it."
Austin is now dating model Kaia Gerber (Cindy Crawford's daughter), who was right by his side as he premiered the long-awaited biopic in Cannes in May 2022.
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