Tonight’s George Clooney-organized, multi-network Hope For Haiti Now telethon was a subdued, classy affair, thankfully free of any awkward “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” moments. In all, the two-hour telecast included 19 musical performances, most of which were terrific. I could name two female artists who were a bit out of their league, but since they were singing for charity, I won’t. Instead, I’ll run down what were, in my humble opinion, the 10 best numbers of the night. (You can download them all, by the way, on iTunes.)
10. Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris I confess I’d never heard of Matt Morris before. But after his and Timberlake’s sensitive, almost half-tempo duet performance of Leonard Cohen’s oft-covered “Hallelujah,” I’m a convert. READ FULL STORY »
Christina Aguilera’s making her silver-screen debut in a musical called Burlesque, about a small-town girl who makes good, somehow, by working at a Cabaret-like L.A. performance venue. It was written with her in mind, and that makes sense — I simply cannot imagine a better first-movie vehicle for Christina’s big voice and retro-sexy vibe. It’s a crime that she hasn’t graced a musical earlier, in fact, but points for holding out for the right project, as opposed to jumping into the first cheesy teen movie available the minute she became famous. And is it me, or is this basically a slightly-classier version of Coyote Ugly? More to the point: Does that make it more awesome or less? (My head says "less," but my heart says "more.")
