“You won’t see me do a seven-minute monologue,” pledges Hugh Jackman, host of the 81st Annual Academy Awards, via cell phone Tuesday en route to rehearsals.

“You won’t see me dance with Snow White. You won’t see me dressed as Hannibal Lecter. And you won’t see me be late – though the show could run that way,” he promises, tweaking Oscarcasts past in which Rob Lowe infamously twirled a Disney heroine and Billy Crystal took the stage in the mask of an infamous anti-hero.

Jackman, 40, a charm machine who bears a startling resemblance to the young Clint Eastwood, is the Australian triple threat who excels at the manly thing, the musical thing and the romantic thing.

But can he do the Oscar thing, a job generally given to stand-up comics and one that has defied the considerable talents of David Letterman, Chris Rock and Jon Stewart?

Well, Jackman won over fanboys as Wolverine in the “X-Men” pictures, wowed Broadway as Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” and wooed romantics in “Kate & Leopold.” And the Tony Award-winner (for “Boy From Oz”) has awards-show cred, having thrice emceed the Tonys, winning an Emmy for hostly duties in 2004.

Still, Jackman is the Oscars’ first solo host without “standup comedian” on his resume since Jack Lemmon did the deed in 1985. But whatever happens at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, whether he crashes like Letterman’s “Oprah/Uma” rap or soars like a Billy Crystal medley, it is unlikely to be Jackman’s most embarrassing moment as a performer.

That distinction would be a show during his 1995 London run in “Beauty and the Beast.” As he tells it, he was being treated for dehydration and “drank too much water.” Playing Belle’s vain suitor Gaston, Jackman was clad in scarlet tights, full of bladder and of self as he launched into the final notes of his character’s eponymous song.

“Suddenly I realized that the muscles you use to sing are the same ones you use to pee,” he recalls matter-of-factly. “And I have to say that my most humiliating moment onstage has to be peeing in my tights.”

Jackman, People magazine’s reigning “sexiest man alive,” recognizes that the trickiest part of this Oscar gig is simultaneously playing to two audiences. There are the 3,400 nominees and industry professionals inside the Kodak Theatre and the half billion or so watching the event on television globally.

He’s grateful for the advice of former Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg, both of whom “have impressed upon me that the Oscar live audience would be the best I’ve ever had – at least at the beginning of the show.”

Into the night as there are more losers in the room, the ceremony aptly described by Johnny Carson as “two hours of sparkling entertainment spread out over a four-hour show” inevitably loses momentum. The room gets tougher, Jackman says, quoting Goldberg, because of this simple equation: “The more losers, the less goodwill.”

To help make the show more fun and less formal – and to stanch that goodwill leak – producers Lawrence Mark and Bill Condon (producer and director of “Dreamgirls”), have reconfigured the Kodak Theatre.

In Oscars past, the auditorium has had the air of a graduation ceremony attended by thousands with only a handful receiving diplomas. But Sunday, redressed as a more intimate space, it will have a supper-club vibe when Jackman mingles and banters with the crowd.

It’s a gamble for the Academy, whose 80th annual celebration last year was the lowest-rated and least-watched since the Oscars first were telecast in 1953. But Jackman is game. He’s of the opinion that in recent years the Oscars has been too much about the business and too little about the show.

Without divulging any closely kept secrets of a ceremony that’s withholding the names of presenters, Jackman gives one clue as to how the ratio of show to biz might be different.

“It’s a well-known fact that I’m working on one segment of the show with Baz Luhrmann,” he says, referring to the bold and unpredictable director of “Moulin Rouge” and “Australia” (the latter of which starred Jackman).

A musical interlude? A film-clip medley? An imagined meeting of “Australia” and “Slumdog Millionaire”? “I’ll say no more,” he whispers hyper-dramatically.

No, he will not confirm rumors that Luhrmann is choreographing a musical number featuring Jackman, Beyonce, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens (“High School Musical” stars and offscreen sweethearts) and Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper (“Mamma Mia!” stars and offscreen sweethearts).

No, he will not confirm whether Robert Pattinson (“Twilight’s” sexy vampire) will present an award with Efron. If the rumors are true, this will delight tween- and teenage girls, a demographic that ordinarily does not watch the Oscars but did help make “High School Musical” and “Twilight” monster hits.