November 04, 2004

• Joan Rivers (shudder)
• Is Halle Berry too young/obvious?
• John Woo If I have to sit through another one of his "patented" slow motion, physically impossible action scenes...
• Rush Limbaugh.
• Pick any of the usual sitcom/drama show hacks...I'm thinking Heather Locklear here. But you might also now include Jason Alexander, does Charleton Heston still count? Always horrible if you ask me.
• I would not call Joan Rivers or William Shatner overrated in any sense of the term. They are without particular artistic greatness, and everyone knows it. They are popular, and maybe unjustly so. But they are not overrated. If you cannot find many people to tell you what a great actor William Shatner is, then he can't possibly be overrated.
• I was about to say Justin Timberlake. But he's a prettyboy, so I'll give him a pass.
• Cher
• Spike Jonze.
• Dean Koontz
• William Shatner overrated in any sense of the term. They are without particular artistic greatness, Have you even listened to Has Been? Saying that he has no particular artistic greatness is like saying Maria Callas knew little about singing.
• Yeah, I'd agree w/bernockle. Shatner may be a beloved celebrity by many (myself included) but I don't go around touting his talent genius. Ben Affleck: smart but the same guy in every film (sans Good Will Hunting), and again, I don't think anyone has him on their list for the next Spencer Tracy. Hm. I'll try to think of someone for ya, though. :)
• I own "Has Been." Fucking love it.
• I'm going to say Halle Berry too. It's been said already, sort of, but I disagree with both Shatner and Affleck, in this regard. Shatner, first, is very good at being Shatner, and so long as you aren't looking for Laurence Olivier, he will pretty much always deliver. And Affleck is sort of the same. He just makes TERRIBLE decisions with the projects he does. He can be good (see: Sum of all Fears) or brilliant (see: Dazed and Confused) in the proper role. on preview: file my comment, top to bottom, in the department of redundancy department.
• Clarification: My editor wants entertainers whose success most outweighs their talent. I may have oversimplified it as "overrated". Title of article may turn out to be "Who puts the Suck in Success?"
• I'd say Anne Rice, but I don't want her to e-mail me. Robert Zemeckis (sp?). I don't understand what people see in his movies at all. As I said in the Episode III thread, George Lucas. He got lucky with the original two. Now he's digging up their corpses and molesting them. Musically, *dons helmet* I don't get the whole Tori Amos thing. She's all right, but it's nothing special to me.
• keanu reeves. reached the pinnacle of his career with the bill & ted movies. came close to destroying the otherwise excellent much ado about nothing (everything grinds to a halt when he appears).
• Oh, let me add John Travolta. A pretty good actor with absolutely no faculty for telling good projects from bad.
• George Lucas...see episode III trailer thread.
• Rush
• George Bush.
• Sure, Itchy gets all the good press, but without Scratchy, he'd be nothing.
• Sure, Itchy gets all the good press, but without Scratchy, he'd be nothing.
• Nicolas Cage, and a second for Keanu Reeves
• Julia Roberts has to be right up there.
• I love Keanu Reeves, and I would argue with anyone who says anything negative about him. I fantasize about seeing what it would be like to watch myself play in the NBA, NFL, or MLB. Watching Keanu Reeves work alongside real actors is the closest thing I have to experiencing that fantasy for real.
• ...and I completely disagree with the nomination of Nick Cage.
• I would say Joel Schumacher. That guy is the devil. He wrecked Batman, and will no doubt wreck Phantom of the Opera. When you point to "the Lost Boys" and "Flatliners" (which *are* guilty pleasures of mine, but are not good films) as your best work, you're a hack. In a close second, I'd put Michael Bay. (Pearl Harbor. Need I say more? Ok, Bad Boys II, where they *invade Cuba*) Thanks for asking the question, Wendell. Fun fun fun.
• Oh, and I like Keanu. I think that he'd be an excellent silent film actor, because his body language is so sinuous and fabulous. He just can't get rid of the surfer dude accent. (I'm a silent film geek.) ...And, Con Air aside, you can't say bad stuff about Nick Cage because of Valley Girl (sigh... he's dreamy in that... Ok. I'll stop being 13)
• I would contest GWB because we know why he is successful - money and family connections. It's not inexplicable success, and nobody is touting his genius. I third Keanu - the only funnier line than 'I know kung-fu' is 'I am an FBI agent!' I would have said Ron Howard, but I effing love Arrested Development, so I'll leave him alone.
• middleclasstool - I'm guessing you've only heard radio Tori Amos. She is very hit and miss (entire albums suck), but her good stuff is very good.
• William Hurt, although I actually loved him in The Village
• Bon Jovi and Toby Keith come to mind, but you can find tons of people who disagree with me strongly.
• Casey Kasem. Joan Collins.
• Catherine Zeta Jones Russell Crowe (although I liked him in A Beautiful Mind) mct, I'm with you on the Tori Amos thing. In fact, *dons suit of armor* Liz Phair Quentin Tarantino OVERRATED. I didn't think Jim Jarmusch was overrated until I saw Dead Man. Two hours of my life I will never get back.
• That sports announcer who now licks movie stars' asses on celebrity TV shows. The one with the whiny voice. You know. Jimmy Fallon does impressions of him.
• I second Quentin Tarantino. Setting scenes of spurting blood to 70s music and having characters react with indifference might be funny once. Once. I always felt that the biggest fans of Pulp Fiction were the people who never bothered to see Independent or Foreign films, but who would have loved them.
• J - Freakin' Lo. Goddamn. Madonna for that matter. 2nd or 3rd for Keanu as well. Sports announcers? Tim McFreakin Carver! Aaaiiigh!
• Dead Man is one of my favorite movies, shinything... But I could definitely see where it's not everyone's cup o tea. (See above comment about being silent film geek.)
• All network news* anchors. * they are too entertainers
• (Disagreed on Tim McCarver, petebest. I've learned a lot about baseball from him over the years.) Quentin Tarantino! Yes! Overrated! Yes!
• Mariah Carey, and her la-di-da five octave range.
• How about that actor who just stepped down from the Bond series, whose name I always push down in my consciousness because it's so unpleasant to acknowledge it?
• Fabio has to be right up there near the top of the list.
• Holy Christ, how could I forget: Patrick Swayze. [screams in horror]
• And old standby Kevin Costner.
• How about that actor who just stepped down from the Bond series Timothy Dalton? Cos if you mean Pierce Brosnan, I'm gonna bop ya. /Remington Steele fan
• Male: Owen Wilson Female: Andie MacDowell Both horrible actors.
• Fametracker's fame audits are usually on the money.
• Howard Stern. Obscenely overpaid loudmouth bigot.
• *sighs sheepishly* meredithea, I feel sorta weird about it because I love silent films too. (I think you're right about Keanu making a good silent film star.) And I really, really wanted to like Dead Man. But during the last hour...nothing but Johnny Depp grimacing and Neil Young twanging his guitar. I wanted to scream. *grimace* TWAAAANG!
• "Musically, *dons helmet* I don't get the whole Tori Amos thing. She's all right, but it's nothing special to me." *GASPS* O my god! you blasphemous bastard! LOL... straight men are SO weird! hello! MCT, really, the woman could win a fucking Nobel Prize for writing (and that's without counting her amazing shoe collection)...lol I'll have to nominate *Britney Spears* she's quite talentless. She'd probably be nothing had she not broken out at that particular point in time (right before the end of the world in Y2K, people were looking for dumb fun and dumb she is)...
• Colin Quinn Anna Quindlen Al Franken The Clash (I know you didn't want dead people, but most of them are still alive) Cher Anyone on Crank Yankers Jai from Queer Eye (what the hell is it that he does, anyway??) Zig Ziglar Danni Ashe David Foster Wallace Martin Sheen JK Rowling Steve Jobs Matthew Perry Tony Danza Fish in a barrel, man. And it's a FULL barrel.
• Kevin Spacey. An absolute virtuoso using only two or three notes.
• Barbra Streisand. bar none. I want to gouge my eyes and ears out everytime she comes on my tv screen or somoe gushes about how good she is.
• Definitely Keanu Reeves. Cher as a singer, but not as an actress. I have to disagree about Nicholas Cage (plus a few other nominations, but there's no need to debate them all).
• Ook! The queen of 'em all, Celine Dion!
• I'm changing my answer because he listed The Clash... Male: Owen Wilson Fes Female: Andie MacDowell Fes's mom
• George Clooney. I could stare at the floor and mumble. But he gets paid millions for it.
• I second rocket88's update. (And Liz Phair's first album makes up for anything she's done since.)
• But The Clash are overrated. Have you listened to London Calling in the last few years? It doesn't hold up all that well. I spun it last week and found it to be an almost bore now.
• jalexei, Exile in Guyville may be a hard act to follow, but I disagree with people who say LP has sucked since then. WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg is one of my fave albums, and even the latest one has some good material on it, ignoring the commercial radio-bate. I'm surprised that no one has listed Tom Cruise.
• Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs??? I don't see how he even fits into the category asked about, but even if he did - the guy started Apple Computer (rated the most innovative company of the past 75 years in a survey of business executives by Business Week), AND Pixar Industries (ranked THIRD in the same survey) not to mention in those in-between years starting Next Computer which would write the operating system that would become "OS X" when he was brought back to save the company. How can the guy be overrated? Now Bill Gates? That's over-rated... (threadjack alert) : )
• Anne Rice; that I'll second. So little talent, so many fans. Steve Jobs *is* fucking overrated. The innovations he claims credit for are the work of others, and he's not even that good as a businessman - Bill Gates shits all over him there. Jobs is, at best, a usefully demanding patron for the genuine geniuses (such as Woz and Raskin) who have worked for him. Fuck, even if her were God Almighty Himself, he'd still be overrated, because of the uncritical adulation Jobs-weenies pour all over him. Ben Affleck is the new Sylvester Stallone: wins a scriptwriting Oscar for good movie, jumps shark.
• Dr. Phil
• Val Kilmer. My God the guy is horrible. I remember a great quote from John Frankenheimer who had just directed him in The Island of Dr. Moreau; "Even if I had to cast a guy to play Val Kilmer, I wouldn't pick Val Kilmer". Jack Nicholson; that sucker peaked about 20 years ago. Toby Maguire; Spiderman 2 was right up there in my Worst Movies Ever list. Looking like a vaguely startled puppy at all times is not the same as acting. Madonna, as a singer. As a businesswoman she is fantastic. The Rolling Stones. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Die already! Henry Rollins. Shut the fuck up already Henry. Please.
• I second Harry Potter/JK Rowling.
• Brittany Murphy.
• Madonna as an entertainer. Julia Roberts and Keanu Reeves as actors. That guy on everyone loves Raymond as a comedian. But the Clash??? C'mon! London Calling has definitely aged (shoulda cut some tracks) but overall it still kicks! In fact, I think I'll go listen to it now... :)
• Colin Quinn is right on the money, Fes. How this guy has managed to keep his head above water in the comedy curcuits all these years is beyond me. He sucks at stand up, he sucked on SNL, and he sucks on Tough Crowd now. SUCKS!
• Fes Danni Ashe? Just a sec, we can list softcore porn stars too?? Where do I begin?? ;)
• Will Ferrell
• Anyone who says Shannon Tweed is overrated gets punched in the face by me.
• Not Nicolas Cage??? The guy has only one expression!
• I can't believe no one has suggested Whoopi Goldberg. No dramatic ability, limited to a few obvious gags as a comic actor, insufferably obnoxious. She's a female Milton Berle, for God's sake. I think it was Andrew Dice Clay who said that America doesn't have the guts to admit that Whoopi Goldberg isn't funny.
• Gotta go with Ben Stiller.
• good one shinything - Celine Dion beats all of my earlier calls. She sounds, and looks, like she is straining her vocal chords on every single song.
• I'll second Celine Dion. The very mention of her name has made me shelve any moving-to-Canada-in-a-huff plans I may have recently entertained. And I can't believe that nobody has mentioned Jessica Simpson yet. The sheer depth and breadth of her vapidity makes Keanu look like a Confucian Sage in comparison.
• I don't think Jessica Simpson has been rated, much less overrated.
• Shinything: Yeah, maybe I just like Johnny Depp's grimaces :) (And Neil Young's one note guitar solos) I've *gotta* agree with you on Celine Dion, though. *shudder*
• All three of the clowns from American Idol. Seriously, a lousy dancer hopped up on Vicodan, a low-end pop record producer, and someone who played guitar (?) for a lame pop band (for a while). Julia Roberts is a decent actress, but deserves no where near the adulation she gets. After watching the stinker "Ladykillers", I am compelled to add Tom Hanks to the list. WTF?
• I always felt that the biggest fans of Pulp Fiction were the people who never bothered to see Independent or Foreign films, but who would have loved them. I loved Pulp Fiction, and I also love independent and foreign films. I don't think Tarantino is overrated, but I do think he should avoid speaking in public because he's a big obnoxious geek. Now, Steven Spielberg, HE'S WAY overrated. I'd second some others above, but there are too many.
• AMEN! Quentin Tarantino!!* * link to own work.
• Tom Cruise.
• Ashton Kutcher The guys from Jackass Demi Moore Catherine Zeta Jones (she just makes me cringe, I don't know why) George Lucas, times fifty Stephen King as a screenwriter And Tom Cruise, most overrated in the early '90s when he did those two crap movies with Nicole Kidman
• Another one for Ben Stiller. Not completely talentless as an actor, but somebody keep him from writing/directing. That, of course, leads to me hating Ethan Hawke/Wynona "nothing but doe-eyes" Ryder because of Reality bites.
• Producers aren't getting enough play here. Jerry Bruckheimer can suck it. I second Tom Cruise. And the Rolling Stones. Has anyone said Queen?
• Why are there so many people who shouldn't sing, but do (or did): Bob Dylan (great poet, mind), Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Janis Joplin, Custer LaRue (anybody awake?), Mick Jagger... Please don't hurt me.
• Kate Bush can't sing? *prepares horrible revenge*
• I would say that if you are going to call anyone a great poet, then you must give some weight to their own interpretations/readings of their own poetry. As such, I think that it is unfair to say that Dylan should not sing.
• The young Leonard Cohen sure, but have you listened to "I'm Your Man"? What the hell happened to that man's voice? It dropped by like two octives! Put on "Everybody Knows" and tell me he shouldn't sing.
• Janis Joplin??? No, you can't have that one.
• Sofia Coppola. Lost In Translation is the only moved I have felt compelled to walk out of halfway through.
• *scratching her head...* I thought it was show biz that was overrated. /leaves to ponder the trees and the forest.
• moved movie
• P. Puff Daddy Diddy? music...crap. production...crap. campaign to get younger voters out to the polls, that ob-e-us-lee didn't work (damn little snots..thanks alot kids...see if i sell you weed again. you should have voted.) then again, Ben Affleck sucks too. they both (he and Mr. Diddy) dated J. Lo Jennifer Lopez, and she SO sucks. coincidence?
• The Clash suck???!!!! On this one, we're either going to have to agree to disagree, or we're going to have to agree that you're wrong. And that scene from Ghost where they spin the clay, oh lordy Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze should both be given gift certificates for weekend makeovers at the Abu Ghraib Health & Fitness Spa for that.
• Tell you what, Jail Guitar Doors still kicks some major ass. (it just came on in my itunes.) And London Calling hasn't aged a day other than in terms of production values.
• I'd like to add Oprah to the list. All celebs are overrated. It's an unfortunate side effect of the hype machine that got you to notice them in the first place. London Calling overrated? Blasphemy. Even today that record towers above any of the thin gruel being pumped out by your local 'alternative' radio station. Seriously, who will remember Nickleback in 2006? Otherwise, you're all pretty much dead on.
• I find it silly when people say Bob Dylan cant sing. He is or was an excellent singer. Listen to the 1965 'Royal Albert hall" performance. There are 2 issues: 1) for a period, esp. in the 80s he for some reason gave ass-awful concerts where he rushed and mumbled his way through. 2) the difference between "good singer" and "strong voice." Celine Dion and Christina Aguliera have strong voices, but they cant sing for shit. A good singer communicates emotion. Sinatra didnt have a particularly "good" voice, but he was a great singer. When I listen to vintage Dylan, he is communicating beautifully with his voice. Therefore I consider him (in his prime) to have been a good or even great singer. And if you try to tell me The Byrds' "mr Tamborine Man" is better than Dylan's you are really being silly. ps sorry but the Clash are overrated. They were not a BAD group, in fact they were very good. But they are rated incredibly highly, often as one of the top groups ever in certain types of surveys. But to me the politics were always rather juvenile and branding yourself "the only group that matters" is just asking for it.
• ...although as the anecdote goes, when dylan heard hendrix play "all along the watchtower" he is supposed to have said "yeah, that's how i wanted it to sound". but bob dylan? no way is dylan overrated. not with the influence he's had on music, no. especially now that he's gotten healthy and has been producing some really, really amazing new stuff, you can't say he's become irrelevant. (and i have tickets to see him next week.) and shame on you, moneyjane. the stones? aw man. i love the stones. the only band i know of that comes right out and says "look, we only make new albums because we like making music together and it gives us an excuse to go on tour again - but we're old, so you'll have to make it worth our while." they play like 2 or 3 new songs then give you what you really came to hear. so overrated? i don't agree... sure, the new stuff doesn't live up to the old stuff, but the old stuff still kicks ass. and they don't apologize for the new stuff. nobody expects it to be the old stuff again. (stones were my first concert... saw 'em again a few years later. i'd have gone the last tour too, 'cept i didn't have the $100 per ticket they were asking.)
• you know who is overrated? totally, completely without talent and need to be shot? radiohead. and ani di franco. both can go crawl into a hole and die and i would think the world a better place.
• You want more blasphemy? David Bowie. I so don't understand what he has done that was good in the last 15 years and what he has ever done that was great.
• Oh my. So many of you are so staggeringly, incredibly WRONG. I never knew! Spacey? Clash? Crowe? Kate Bush? OwenBenWilsonStiller? JK Rowling? Keanu? Madness, I tell you. Madness*. On Preview: Bowie?!?! Now that's just insanity. I'll throw my weight behind those saying that George Lucas must top the poll for greatest cultural influence and financial success based on least talent. Have you ever tried just listening to the dialogue in Star Wars? The man cannot write, and cannot direct actors. A few nice visuals. Storyline - bleh. Empire is the only watchable movie in the entire series so far. Halle Berry. Yes. The Academy called, Ms. Berry - they want their Oscar back. Have a Beyoncé too. One song, love. You have that one great song you wiggled your bottom to, and everything else you do blows goats. Terrible. And if you want a bit of icon-bashing, how about Clint Eastwood? An actor with only two modes - flinty glare and orang-utan - and a director who seems to do little other than try to recreate the sort of film where all you needed was a flinty glare and you'd be fine. Oh, yeah, and Robin Williams. Desperately unfunny now, of course, but unlike fellow currently-not-funny people Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, he never was funny. Never. Ever. Not a bit. Appalling hairy cretin. Stop now. *This is not a nomination for the band Madness.
• Mackerel, I'd have to agree that Bowie's recorded output of late has been pretty lame. I went to see him on a recent tour (Feb or this year), expecting to be mildly entertained. What I didn't expect was to witness one of the all-time most inspiring performances I've ever seen. No shit, the guy was flat-out awe-inspiring . Color me amazed.
• Stephen King.
• M. Night Charlatan. And recently, I'm sorry to say: Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.
• My mom says it'll be a "colt friggin day in goddam Hades" before the Rocket gets any cookies out of her.
• the original post said no dead people but that has been violated many time already so... Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana Nirvana! One decent original song ("All Apologies"), some passable cover versions on "Unplugged" and a dubious "voice of a generation" title does not a great group make.
• Oh and leaving aside personal opinions on Courtney Love, "Celbrity Skin" is far better than any Nirvana album.
• How come no one has mentioned the Fresh Prince yet? I nominate the Fresh Prince.
• Over-rated Actor: Kevin Costner Most Dreadful Director: Kenneth Brannagh for his unnecessary and grotesquely unjustifiable remake of Frankenstein; it's a ten-stench stinker Most Over-rated Juveniles: the Olsen twins Moat Over-rated Everything: Steve Martin
• Oh, gosh, I almost forgot! Most Over-rated Composer: Andrew Lloyd Weber
• Most overrated despot: Turkmenbashi. Most overrated website: MetaFilter. Most overrated English accent: British RP. Most overrated country: US of A.
• Tom Waits shouldn't sing? Them's fightin' words, fish tick. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to hurt you now.
• Overrated comedian? Chevy Chase. Overrated musician. Aaliyah.
• Most Over-rated Novelist of 20th Century: Ernest Hemingway Most Over-rated Poet of 20th Century: T. S. Eliot
• His name's an anagram of "toilets", you know.
• This is good -- demonstrating there are still small joys to be found in the world, flashboy.
• Dustin Hoffman - utterly talentless cunt, who has barely, if ever, been in a decent film, and yet is, for some reason or other, considered a genius. He is an excellent driver, though, so I suppose that makes up for it.
• David Blaine. No further comment or justification necessary, I feel.
• Tom Waits shouldn't sing? Them's fightin' words, fish tick. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to hurt you now. *grabs wiffle bats, hands one to klausness*
• In case no one's mentioned him yet, M. NIGHT SHAMALAYAN
• Not quite show biz, but Tom Robbins *makes mad dash for bomb shelter*
• klausness, middleclasstool: I'm so sorry! That's phrased that incorrectly; it should be "Tom Waits doesn't sing, except on the Closing Time album". Heh- chain-yanking, you know; much depends on how one defines 'singing'. *Dons protective armour.*
• bees, i won't argue with you over the poets thing - you probably have more cred there than i do. but you just stepped on papa hemingway, and now you and i have to throw down. we face off at dawn, your choice of weapons: fishing poles, big game rifles, alcohol, or boxing gloves: whichever one of us goes down first (or suffers liver failure, in the case of an alcohol standoff) will be declared the loser. as far as overrated writers go, i'd nominate anyone who ever made oprah's reading list (except of course for the great john steinbeck), and throw in ayn rand to boot.
• Oh, frogs, that's not fair about the Oprah thing. What about that Toni Morrisson book? Or...that other Toni Morrisson book? Or that book by what's-her-name?
• mct: Did the earth move for you? I this-and-that in the milk of Hemingway's 'genius'. Hemingway is so bad he manages to parody himself without that being his intention. So we may never agree about him; I think I treat him justly. I think bulls are the most the most Hemingway-appropriate method of responding to your challenge. Bulls at dawn.
• Well, I've addressed the wrong fmonkey there! I apologize -- that should teach me the perils of talking on the phone anf trying to do something else, too. I'm sorry, mct. My comment above is for clf! Hemingway had bulls! I like Irish bulls.
• Somehow i read that as Hemingway had balls...which i suppose he did...but...never mind, i haven't had my first cup of coffee yet!!!
• Henry Rollins. Shut the fuck up already Henry. Please Ha!Ha! Yeah, I gotta agree with that one! Do NOT fuck with; Tom Waits, Bowie or The Clash! That is just WRONG!!! Kate Bush? Dude, she's awesome! Kevin Spacey? WTF-are you insane? He's fantastic! My list of wastes is long; so I'll just agree with many of the above, esp. Nick Cage and Julia Roberts.
• Jake had no balls. In Spain balls are called cojones. Jake lost his somehow in the war. He never got over it. So they all talked about cojones a lot. And then they would apologize to Jake. "We're sorry, Jake." Lady Brett was sad. She missed Jake's cojones, too. But that got old. So then she would drink. And sleep around some more. But not with Jake. They were The Lost Generation. So they all went to drink still more and talk about bulls. Bulls and bullfighters with cojones. In Spain. Where the earth moves for people* when they copulate. And if. ____________ *Read about this in For Whom the Bell Tolls. If you dare.
• I stand my ground on the Stones; having once been the greatest rock band in the world doesn't mean you are still the greatest rock band in the world (nor anywhere close) just because you managed to not die. Pbbbttshhht! I also nominate Elton Fucking Please Make It Stop John.
• Well, I agree with any and all anti-Julia Roberts sentiments, but I can't believe no one mentioned the male Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant. I also second Barbra Streisand, and while we're at it, let's toss in a little Mel Gibson.
• oh i just saw that fes included Zig Ziegler. I walked out of one of his seminars that i was forced to go to. Pure bullshit mixed with evangelical rhetoric does not help a graphic designer improve sales.
• Way to go wendell, you got 'em fighting now. Heh. ) Brilliant! *off to join the fray* Oh yeah? Queen sucks! no, not the Queen! Well, I mean, how the hell would I know??
• Peace will only come to this world when George Lucas is strangled to death with Jim Carrey's entrails. Larry King must also die, but I can't think of anything sufficiently painful just now.
• Post 1 having read 1/2 way down: The Clash. London Calling??? Are you mad? sheesh. It's genius and it still sounds fresh and brilliant and relevant 25 years on. Good Grief. Next you'll be saying Elvis was talentless.
• Post 2: still 1/2 way dowm. I've been debating Shatner on email with non-monkey friends this week. They think it's genius. I think it's shite. My freind who was here tonight thinks it's genius. They're all wrong. It's shite
• shawnj: you are SO WRONG. bah.
• OK this is the dickdotcom showbiz hatelist: travis travis travis travis travis travis travis. Have you Americans heard of them? I'd be v interested to know if their absolute mediocre shiteness has crossed the pond. Keane: ditto travis. anything to do with: Pop Idols The X Factor Big Brother Heat magazine Ben Elton Nick Hornby Tony Parsons Julie Burchill Steven Spielberg and the whole Star Wars bore-fest ...
• Every single person on television, on mainstream radio and all Hollywood actrons. Did I leave anyone out?
• Pssssst! Note to wendell - you made Defamer!
• Everyone involved with Defamer, Gawker, Fametracker, etc. Nothing lamer than obsessively following lame people's careers to point out how lame they are.
• I know... my editor told me... I hadn't gotten permission to publicly troll for suggestions, but she took it well, and provided more suggestions from people in her office. It should guarentee a large audience for the final product. I'm just sorry the Defamer linked to the AskMe thread and not this one (you monkeys are 30 comments ahead, but what's with the Hemingway derail? NO DEAD PEOPLE.)
• The article is up on MSNBC.com: The 10 Most Overrated Stars. Thanks for your collective help (although I did throw out 94.3% of your suggestions).
• okay, now I have to bitch. (politely) Whoopi Goldberg may not have done the movies you'd like (or I'd like), but the woman can act. Everyone knows she's brilliant in The Colour Purple, but she's also a lot more deep than most actresses would be in silly but fun things like Sister Act. You see it when she played Guinan on Star Trek - a walk on character, who still had more character than some of the regulars. You can't judge an actor's talent by the movies or roles they have had (though maybe you can criticise their or their agent's judgement) - you have to judge them by what they do with it - how they practice their craft.* And she's good. (Okay, not as good as Robin Williams, but there are gods who aren't as talented as Robin Williams.) And William Shatner is a very good stage actor who is simply too large for the small screen. *Similarly, a good script does not excuse a weak actor, though it can smooth over the problems.
• Nice article wendellupagus - well written *and* a snarky photo of Madonna (bonus!) However, I too must echo jb's call for props to The Shat. Self-parody as art form (or career) is cool. An' why y'all gotta be hatin' on Snoop man? Dag.
• Shatner can act, he's just a bit of a ham, but who cares? No one else can play the Big Giant Head so well!
• I have a hell of a lot more respect for Shatner than anyone else on the list. At least he looks like he's having fun. Same thing goes for Ozzy.
• "[movie | album] x went way over my head, so I think that [actor | actress | singer] y is overrated for having participated in it." You're not looking for overrated- you're looking for people who have been successful even though they suck a lot. Possibly people who are successful despite, or even because, people know they suck a lot. Shatner's a good fit for that, but you can do better. Ahnold anyone? I mean, most of shatner's success is due to his one role as capt kirk, but Arnold's got terminator, predator, junior, kindegarten cop, jingle all the fucking way? Look at all the different roles. Shatner was just way overdramatic. Ahnold sucked in all kinds of ways.
• Just to pile on, I also have to say that I don't think you should be dissing the Shat-man. For a start, in order to be overrated, don't they first have to be... well, rated? Not even Shatner rates Shatner. But a fine article nonetheless. A particularly excellent attack on the parasite-creature that is Whoopsidaisy Goldberg, for I which I thank you deeply. *applause*
• ...and I think it's going to be a long, long time.