Unless you've been living under a rock, far away from pop culture, you know that Mrs. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, performed a tribute to Judy Garland on Fox's dancefest competition So You Think You Can Dance last night. Party to celebrate the show's 100th episode, partly to shill her new Dizzy Feet Foundation, partly for the universe's critique. And, partly for reasons that we as viewers will probably never understand: Why would Mrs. Cruise put herself up for such scrutiny? (One guess could be that she's gunning for a big Broadway role and wanted to impress some casting-type person.)
EW's "dance-television critic" Annie Barrett summed up the performance perfectly in her TV Watch about last night's show. "We watched Katie Holmes lip-sync her way through 'Get Happy' in a gam-orous tribute to Judy Garland," she wrote. "Prior to this pre-recorded music video, Katie and Catty engaged in an interview that appeared to have taken place on the set of a 1992 Clearasil commercial." Gam-orous! Her legs were on display! Get it?
In case you missed the performance and interview, take a gander at her gams (and her dancing) here:
One detail I'm obsessed with: Katie Holmes is apparently BFF with a chchoreographer on the show, Tyce Diorio. What?! Intriguing. Like, how'd they become friends? Is that common Katie Holmes knowledge I was never privy to before? Celebrities are always friends with the most other random (pseudo) celebrities. I should accept that as fact.
Anyway, the point of this all was to hear what you, the PopWatch universe, thought of Katie's performance: Good? Bad? A slap in the face to Judy Garland? A slap in the face to Cat Deeley and Mary Murphy and all us Dance fans? Or were you pleasantly surprised by the homage? Do you think it should have been live, rather than pre-recorded? Tell us what you think!
More on 'So You Think You Can Dance' from EW:
'So You Think You Can Dance' recap: Worth the Wait
'So You Think You Can Dance' recap: Joy and Tears
Cat Deeley: Rate her 'SYTYCD' style
Comments (1-30) of 427 Add your comment
To paraphrase Ellen from Wednesday’s performance show, what Katie Holmes did was barely “dancing,” and that was made even more painfully obvious because of all the “da-a-a-a-a-a-ancing” that we see on SYTYCD every week, including last night. What she did was walking, posing, being carried, with a couple of stiff shoulder shimmies and kicks thrown in for, well, kicks. Not to mention bad lip synching to decent at best vocals. Embarrassing, in my opinion.
Fail.
That was the biggest piece of doo doo I’ve ever seen. I’m not even going to say what was she thinking but what was Nigel and the producers thinking for giving that ‘piece’ so much airtime. Didn’t they see any rehearsal? I would have rather seen kids who might benefit from the Dizzy Feet Foundation performing than her. Or better yet have Nigel and Carrie-Ann do a duo. That would have been fantastic.
Disappointment. She did not dance, she moved around. It would have been way more interesting if it had feature past dancers!! I would have love to see more dancing from them, more fan favorite routine from the past seasons!!!
Katie couldn’t have done it live. She is in Australia filming a movie today. I doubt she could get back to the US and get back. Probably why they taped it. Although these days the show likes to take all their big production numbers in advance. And they don’t even do performance night live. It’s done the previous night. It’s not like American Idol which you know the top 12 competition is live. Back to Katie. I liked the number. I felt she was actually pretty good. Sure it had to much hype going into it. Katie never was a famous dancer. She’s sung on Dawson’s Creek. But she hasn’t been known for her dancing. So I never expected a major thing. It’s not like Britney Spears whose career had a lot of dancing in it; in the early days…
She’s no Judy, that’s for sure. Talk about an under-whelming “performance”. SYTYCD should have just played the clip of Judy doing the number from the movie “Summer Stock”.
Uh, I’m way more interested in what’s going on at Comic-Con than SYTYCD. In fact, I’d be blissfully ignorant of this show if EW wasn’t so obsessed with it. Guess that means I’m living under a rock – but it’s an awesome, geeky rock.
I think you’ll find there’s a way to be a total geek AND love SYTYCD. It’s the SNO method.
It was a joke right, someone tell me it was a joke becaues I didn’t see danceing. Judy Garland must be spinning in her grave at that joke of a performance
I think she was just allowed do this mediocre number because she’s Mrs Tom Cruise. She must’ve done a musical in high school before she was discovered for Dawson’s Creek and thinks that means she’s trained. Well I gotta say, Rufus Wainright does a better Judy in drag than she did. And why was Joshua the only SYTYCD dancer in the bunch? Couldn’t they have used all dancers we know when they filmed it?
Shaking your shoulders and grabbing your fedora is not dancing. Count my vote for “slap in the face to Mary and Cat”. I’d watch Philip and Jeanine’s Russian folk dance before watching that again.
I thought it was a low point for SYTYCD, which is one of the very few shows I watch on TV. (mostly PBS) They should have done something else, I was not entertained by her lip syncing and boring dance steps.
I thought she looked beautiful. But, I have to say, I stayed up and watched a show that I NEVER watch just to see Katie, because of the hype that I had previously read that she “could” dance. But, she just moved fairly gracefully, posed very well, and was carried around by male dancers, but she is not a dancer. Better than me, and most people, but definately not up to “So You Think You Can Dance” standards. I wish I had not bothered to watch it.
Disappointing given the amount of hype and promotion. She is a beautiful woman out of her league on a show that highlights exceptional dance and choreography. Kudos to her foundation and cause. Leave the dancing to those darlings that work their rear ends off each week on SYTYCD.
she was fab and classy
I guess I’ve been living under a rock since I missed one hour of worthless television last night.
she did well actually.. when the dance move from the outside to the stage – i was impress by her commanding presence on stage… very broadway type… i actually thought she’d do an excellent performance if she did cabaret as well – All That Jazz..
She thought she could dance…and sing! It was a travesty and a horrible tribute to a lady that could really sing and dance! Given all the hype that occurred before this performance it was a complete and utter letdown. The lip synching was off, there was very little dancing, and more posing and mugging than a bad community theatre performance. To top it off someone had the nerve to invite Judy’s son to watch this prerecorded mess as a tribute to his beloved mother? They should call the show, So You Think You Have Class!
I thought she did a much better job when she was on that episode of Eli Stone. There wasn’t much dancing involved in what she did last night.
As a HUGE fan of SYTYCD… this performance for the 100th episode was…dumb. I did enjoy this little clip – but it would have been worth so much more if it would have been done live on the same stage as the show – not taped. I would have loved to see the past contestants a little more as well – For so much hype, I was a little disappointed at how little they actually put into this show (not to mention Janette’s elimination). It could have been amazing!! But I felt it just fell short. Katie Holmes did do a nice preformance.. but nothing spectacular. I didn’t see what the big deal was.
What a joke. They should’ve instead used her “performance” fee to schlep cutie boy Neil from Season 3 to LA from New York.
I would’ve much rather had TWO HOURS of “where are they now” dancer moments.
Again, bring back Neil. He is missed.
Katie’s performance was more for promoting DizzyFeet. It added nothing to the show’s 100th episode celebration. I would have gladly missed her “performance”. Lip synching and strutting around is an embarrassment to SYTYCD!
retarded … so you think you can be lifted around by guys and walk around stage? well she cant.
Just crawled out from under my rock. Now that I see what’s going on out in the world of pop entertainment, I’m going back; there’s nothing of value to see here.
For all of the hype I thought it would have been produced better. Maybe instead of faceless male dancers they could have used former SYTYCD contestants. Katie can’t sing broadway, she has a nice voice but no where near the talent to try her hand at a Judy Garland tribute. She really was not dancing, just moving about the stage with a Zoolander face. He legs did look great but her weave was hurting my feelings. All and all I love SYTYCD and getting to watch Heidi and Travis dance again more then made up for the lackluster Katie performance.
I’d like to see some of the haters here do the kicks and the lifts that Holmes did. And to compare Holmes to the SYTYCD dancers — who have years of training — is unfair and ridiculous.
I’m not a Katie Holmes fan, but her online detractors need to get a frickin’ grip.
I agree with Shana. Rufus Wainwright does a better Judy Garland than Katie Holmes could ever dream of doing.
I have to agree that she did not dance. Having men bounce around you while you snap into cliche positions is hardly performance worthy. Most of teenage america does better in the privacy of their homes in front of a mirror. I was expecting Superstars of Dance quality or at least something worthy of being in the top 8 elimination round show. Why don’t they bring known talent to that stage as a capstone like the Buddhist monks? If she were an actual contestant, she wouldn’t have made it past choreography, and certainly not past Vegas.
I have nothing against Katie Holmes (I was a fan back in her DC days) but this was just random and poorly executed. What she did on the show was not dancing; it was barely performing, really. I also agree with another poster that the men in the skit should have been current and previous dancers from the show not a bunch of nobody’s. Her singing was pretty terrible considering she was trying to be like Judy Garland, which is a difficult feat in and of itself. Overall they definitely could have done without this. I would have rather seen more stellar performances from previous seasons.
Although it was Katie’s intention to pay homage to Judy Garland, it came off more like an unfunny Saturday Night Live skit. She didn’t have the chops nor dancing talent to pull off this number. It would’ve been better to have had past SYTYCD alumni dance a tribute to Ms. Garland and allow American Idol alum, Melinda Doolittle perform the singing. It made Katie seem indulgent and it came off more like a vanity piece. Her intentions were good, but the execution was very poor.
sad, sad, sad. Fame can get you anthing you want I guess. Bad lip sync, bad, bad, bad. Never should have been aired. I think she was sincere in her idea but WOW be real about your talent or lack of. I was very disappointed in the performance, the bad lip sync so had my attention I barely noticed her lack of dancing.
She wouldn’t have made it beyond SYTYCD auditions. Nigel would have made her cry…
If this move was to help her career… Ouch!