Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Justin Timberlake: Master Thespian, Idol Downsizes, Kylie in Single White Female Shock!

"But I'm an actor!"

"This is funny, no?" No.

Last weekend Justin Timberlake hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time and by all accounts he did his usual amazing job, displaying a natural flair for comedy and (unlike he comes across in interviews) amusing self-deprication. AND he brought back The Barry Gibb Talkshow with Jimmy Fallon.

But While Justin, who has never been shy about his desire to become a “proper” actor, always impresses on the comedy sketch show, he has failed dismally to do the same on the big screen; starring in flop after flop.

He started with a small role in TV movie Model Behaviour alongside Kathy-Lee Gifford and moved onto a cameo as a campy hair stylist in On The Line opposite his *NSYNC bandmates.

His first leading role was in the beffudling straight-to-DVD classic Edison in which he plays a journalist trying to uncover corruption in some futuristic city alongside Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman (they all should have known better).
Then there’s the truly awful Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson (I must say, he picks bad movies with good casts).
Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales is one of the most confusing films ever made, and while nobody saw it, it might be worth seeking out just for JT miming to The Killers' “All These Things I’ve Done”.
Odd teen murder
drama Alpha Dog plays like a well cast TV movie, and while Justin certainly doesn’t humiliate himself, he wasn’t troubled with any plaudits for his work either.

The Edison cast: spot the odd one out. It's LL Cool J? Dammit.

Then, after a string of mainly ill-advised dramatic roles, it looked like Justin was going to be saved! Noticing Justin’s canny knack for comedy on SNL, Mike Myers came up with the genius plan: he would cast him in his next movie. Unfortunately the movie turned out to be The Love Guru, one of the least funny comedies of all time.

Justin played Jacques “Le Coq” Grande, a French Canadian hockey player with a dodgy comedy accent and penchant for Speedos. That description made it sound far funnier than it is.

If Justin must act (and he seems to think this is the case) then may I suggest a sitcom? Or maybe a webshow? Why not just do another album for us?

In any case, why not watch one of the highlights of his most recent SNL appearance? Renuniting with Andy Samberg as their “Dick In A Box” singing duo, he performs an all new song “Mother Lovers”, perfectly timed for Mother’s Day.



Vital (?) Idol

So it has been announced that Australian Idol will mercifully do away with the Monday night elimination show, leaving a Sunday night "super show", a la Dancing With The Stars.
Painfully, the show will be stretched to a full two hours and in even worse news the brilliant and very funny James Mathison has left, just leaving us with the truly woeful Andrew G aka the biggest tool on Australian TV (Before you verbalise your next thought: Kyle Sandilands has never been anything but nice to me, Andrew would rather be looking in a mirror than give anybody else the time of day). Should be interesting.
(In the interests of full disclosure I should say that I spent an entire season working at Idol and I would sooner gauge out my eyes than watch it ever again. Every year I wonder why it comes back, but with Big Brother gone, Ten really needs a tent pole show for the last trimester of the year)


Kylie speaks!

Has anyone seen Ossie Ostrich lately?

On the announcement of her first US tour, Entertainment Weekly spoke to Kylie Minogue on how she feels about Paula Abdul recording all of her rejected songs.
Here’s what she had to say:

Recently, I don’t know if you saw, but Paula Abdul was on American Idol

I haven’t seen it! I’ve heard all about it.


She performed an unreleased track of yours that was leaked online last year.

"I’m Just Here for the Music". Yeah.


Did you know about that?

That’s just what happens with songs that are demo’d. I demo’d it, and it wasn’t on my album.


A couple months ago, she announced that her first single was going to be "Boombox", which is the title of your new remix album.

I know! What’s going on? [laughs]


My editor asked me if Paula was Single White Female-ing you.

If she comes out with feathers on her head, or in a leopard catsuit… [laughs]


Kylie acts like she's joking here, but I think it may have been a nervous laugh of terror.


Scott Keenan

And Scene! o'clock

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