The commonly accepted theory is that, generally speaking, musicians don’t make good movie stars and actors don’t make musicians. Occasionally there’s an exception (Will Smith has done an admirable job turning himself from the Fresh Prince into the new Tom Hanks, Jared Leto has a platinum album, J. Lo was hitting on both cylinders for a second), but it’s rare to find someone who has twin success on the silver screen and in the recording studio.
The latest singer to try and fail at becoming equally as successful an actor is Justin Timberlake. As a singer, Justin (solo and with ‘Nsync) has sold something like 40 million records and won 6 Grammy Awards. As an actor? Not so much. Let’s see. There was “Edison Force”, a movie that went straight to video despite boasting the talents of Oscar winners Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. Then there was “Black Snake Moan”, the only one of Timberlake’s movies I actually saw, which wasn’t bad if you could suspend reality for a bit. However, Timberlake’s role was pretty unnecessary, and the movie wasn’t a success. He followed that up with “Alpha Dog”, which also caught a brick. I don’t know about you, but putting the dude that sang “Bye Bye Bye” in a role as a gangbanger was probably a stretch.
For his latest role, Timberlake has joined forces with Mike Myers in “The Love Guru”, which opened at a weak 4th place this week. Granted, Timberlake doesn’t seem to be the problem with the movie, which judging from previews looks completely unfunny. Myers hasn’t done himself any favors if you read the recent Entertainment Weekly article portraying him as a complete douchebag, but you’ve got to admit that this is a letdown for the guy who created the iconic Austin Powers.
Although Timberlake’s peers don’t seem to be having much success at the box office either (how many people saw “The Pink Panther”?), JT might want to take a look at the film career of the woman whose career he assisted in torpedoing (pardon the pun). People may joke about Janet Jackson’s acting career, but each of the three movies she’s had a major role in debuted at #1 at the weekly box office.
So, here’s my latest cockamamie idea for a column: as a music junkie, I sort of like it when folks who have extensive music collections blog about what they’re listening to at a particular time. If our music tastes are similar, and they mention that they’re listening to something I haven’t heard previously, I usually make an effort to scope out whatever it is.