On a lighter note, Ashlee Simpson on SNL..

[Zac Naloen]

This is the problem with these pop stars. Very few can actually perform in an environment which wasn't explicitly scripted for them.

I find this almost hilarious. When I was in high school, I acted in and worked on school plays. Even we were able to go on if somebody fucked up a line. Hell, there was a time when I fucked up a line (I think it was me, anyway; this was 5 years ago or so) in such a manner that I advanced the script by about 12 pages. Everyone on stage, including me, was able to compensate. We moved on, improvised some lines to bridge the gap and went on. We weren't highly-paid pop star performers; we were actors in a high school play.

Thats the thing, compensating isn't difficult even with a modicum of talent.

Same thing happened when doing the first viewed performance of a play i was doing, someone made a gaffe on a really long speech she had to do. Advanced the script a few pages... the audience wouldn't have noticed. mostly because i was the only actor who noticed due to her mistake inadvertantly skipping my major part in the performance.

[BoredShirtless]

ah thanks BS.

Later, her record firm and publicist blamed it on a "computer glitch".

A spokesman for the show said: "She told us it was only a back-up.

Because a spokesman for the record company that makes money off of Simpson says it wasn't lip-synching, then it must be true.

Nah, the singing which was heard after she stopped was from the backup vocals. Hence the illusion that she was still singing...apparently.

[Stormbringer]

I don't think that this will hurt her career much, as it happened past the bedtimes of most of her fans.

And considering the intelligence of them.

You know what sit down boyo. Some of us suppossedly older mature folks occasionally like a dip into mindless pop. Me personally I find it soothing in a "no thoguht required just listen without listening" kinda way. In other words there are a few smart Simpson fans (or at least listeners).

Your own label sums it up: mindless pop. They can't write songs, they can't play instruments, and as this show, most can't sing either. All they can do is dance around. As I see it they're on step above stripper, and not a long step at that.

And they have legions of screaming fans that hang on their every doing. Forgive me for rating those fans as a bit smarter than dirt; obviously there are some like you that have some brains if not taste.

[DPDarkPrimus]

It would be funny if it happen to Britney Spears in the middle of a concert

Yes, because then she couldn't blame her headset mic. (Remember everyone, she got that because people found it suspicious her voice was the same volume even if she wasn't holding the mic up to her hand...)

[Vympel]

Salon.

Falling to "Pieces"
Ashlee Simpson's lip-synching drama on "SNL" exposed her as the concocted rocker chick we already knew she was.

Oct. 24, 2004 | It happened at the beginning of Ashlee Simpson's second musical performance on "Saturday Night Live." She and her band stood ready to perform the song "Autobiography" when suddenly, mysteriously, her vocal track from her hit song "Pieces of Me" -- which she had already "sung" earlier that evening -- began to play over the loudspeakers. Looking confused and embarrassed, Ashlee did a goofy jig for a few awkward moments, then smiled sheepishly to the audience. Then she slinked offstage. As her band continued to play "Pieces of Me," the guitarist and the bassist exchanging a knowing smirk, and then the show cut to a commercial.

And with one little recording mishap, young Ashlee cashed in whatever counterfeit street cred she and her handlers tried so hard to cultivate.


At the end of the show, Ashlee appeared onstage with host Jude Law to apologize.

Law: Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say? Live TV!

Simpson: Exactly! I feel so bad! My band started playing the wrong song, and I didn't know what to do, so I thought I'd do a hoe-down!

The normally rabid live audience reacted with stilted laughter as Ashlee crammed as many "Oops!" and "What can you do?" gestures as possible into her final few seconds on the air. That hapless little-sister, "Sure, I'm pathetic, but in a cute way!" shtick that made her MTV reality show, "The Ashlee Simpson Show," so popular, won her the devotion of scores of fans, and contributed to selling almost two million copies of her debut album, "Autobiography," now wore thin.

Of course, blaming her band and shrugging it all off as an adorable mishap didn't help, and Geffen Records didn't offer much assistance, either, blaming the snafu on a computer glitch, according to an AP report. The company claimed that, instead of pre-taped drums, the computer played a recording of "Pieces of Me." Not a bad excuse -- if they hadn't played a pared-down, raw-sounding vocal track, and not the normal recording.

Like it or not, plenty of pop performers use pre-recorded tracks, and since Simpson's performance on MTV's Music Video Awards in August was roundly criticized as unimpressive and off-key, it's probably not surprising that Ashlee and her handlers would opt to lip-synch. It's also not surprising that Ashlee isn't the best live performer around; after all, she's hardly performed before. MTV captured her first live performance ever at The Knitting Factory in L.A., replete with promotional fraudience swooning enthusiastically for the cameras. Far from the baby steps most performers take from open-mic nights to small venues, Ashlee was thrust, camera-ready, at age 19, into the drooling maw of the public, hardly given half a chance to come into her own as a songwriter, a performer, or a human being, really.

But just as Ashlee's career was formed in the exhaust of an overhyped publicity vehicle and fueled by a choreographed media dogpile, so might her career go down in flames befitting such a carelessly engineered persona. Hours after the SNL incident, several Websites dug up an interview in Lucky Magazine, where Ashlee professed her disdain for pre-recorded vocals.

Lucky: What are your takes on lip-synching?

Simpson: I'm totally against it and offended by it. I'm going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I'd never lip-synch. It's just not me.

Still, no matter how much Ashlee comes under fire for being a fraud -- as if her entire reality show weren't focused on the blatant, unapologetic fabrication of pop celebrity -- Ashlee herself is too young and naive to be held accountable for the countless errors in judgment that have been made in handling her career. While her father/manager Joe Simpson has been described by the New York Times as a tenacious entrepreneur, you have to question the wisdom of a man who, having transformed his eldest daughter, Jessica, from second-string pop star into reality TV guinea pig and pop cultural punchline, would set his sites on squeezing his more sensitive, emotional daughter into the same celebrity mold. No matter how many times we saw Ashlee stomping her feet and insisting on doing things her way on her show -- which mostly boiled down to which shade of chestnut to dye her blonde hair -- it was always clear that she was a helpless pawn in someone else's intensely profitable game.

Ultimately, her show was a close-up glimpse of Pop Star Day Care. Ashlee was shepherded around town, meeting with the hit songwriters the label hired that week, showing up at her first crowded gig looking petrified, being coached by her sister on how to handle the attention. Maybe, given her sister's trajectory, it seemed perfectly natural to Ashlee and her father that she should launch her career while cameras followed her every move. But who convinced her that it was a good idea to lip-synch?

In a recent New York Times profile of Joe Simpson, Geffen's president Jordan Schur offers some insight into the unmaking of Ashlee Simpson "[W]hen I was arguing with Ashlee and I was firing her producers, and she was crying, 'Dad I'm so upset, do something,' any other manager -- forget father -- would have jumped in," reported Schur. "Joe sat there and didn't open his mouth. He said, 'Listen to Jordan.'"

So what happens to Ashlee now? Given the degree to which most artists are invented by label executives and handlers, given the fact that we've seen this process in slow motion on show's like Ashlee's and Jessica's and "The Making of the Band," why would anyone object to getting a small peek behind the curtain?

Because the public is fickle. Just as her invention as a pop diva captured its imagination, insuring that her album debuted at No. 1 while her sloppily-crafted pop-star self was still half-formed, so will they turn on her for being the fabricated, marketed, propped-up self that they knew she was from the start.

But the real victim is Ashlee, who day in and day out races from one event to the next trying desperately to play her part as an alternative rocker who's actually just a regular, mainstream teenager, as a savvy businesswoman who really doesn't seem to have much say in her career at all, and as a seasoned performer who's actually inexperienced and ill-prepared. As ridiculous as Ashlee might look up there, shrugging and smiling apologetically, it's the puppet master holding her strings who really deserves to be strung up.

Ahem ..........

drum roll ..........


"HA HA!"

[Stofsk]

I have but one question: when did Jude Law become a TV show host? The guy played a Russian sniper in a grand WW2 epic, and now he's camera whore for some late night show? Poor guy. Of course SNL may be insanely popular, but I don't care.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Why is it I come out of that article thinking about Gary Cooper?

[DPDarkPrimus]

ERRATA: Sorry, I meant Gary Coleman.

[Vympel]

I have but one question: when did Jude Law become a TV show host? The guy played a Russian sniper in a grand WW2 epic, and now he's camera whore for some late night show? Poor guy. Of course SNL may be insanely popular, but I don't care.

You don't know much about SNL, eh? EVERYONE guest stars on SNL. He's not a permanent host. One of the greatest episodes I've seen is where Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci showed up during a piss-take of their characters from Goodfellas (or some other mob film). Gabriel Byrne as host was another good one.

Oh, and he just did Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow, so it's not like his career is in the toilet or anything

[Master of Ossus]

CNN picks it up, Simpson tears self a new one.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Singer Ashlee Simpson's "extra help" may have been exposed when a "Saturday Night Live" audience heard her voice -- singing the wrong song -- while she held a microphone at her waist.

Her record company blamed a computer glitch and she blamed her band for Sunday morning's incident, which cut off her planned performance of the song "Autobiography" on the network comedy show.

Simpson had performed her hit single "Pieces of Me" without incident earlier in the show. When she came back a second time, her band started playing and the first lines of her singing "Pieces of Me" could be heard again.

She looked momentarily confused as the band plowed ahead with the song and the vocal was quickly silenced.

Simpson made some exaggerated hopping dance moves, then walked off the stage 35 seconds into the performance. NBC quickly cut to a commercial.

"What can I say?" guest host Jude Law said with Simpson standing next to him at the end of the show. "Live TV."

"Exactly," Simpson said. "I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song. I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd do a hoe-down."

Her record company, Geffen Records, said there was a computer glitch. Instead of some pretaped electronic percussion, the recording of "Pieces of Me" started mistakenly performing, the record company said in a statement.

But it sounded suspiciously like a guide vocal that's a common -- although almost always unspoken -- concert aid. Either the singer "lip synchs" by mouthing words to a backing tape or has a live microphone and sings along to the tape, making the voice sound more powerful than it is.

Such vocal tricks have been used before on the show, making "Saturday Night Live" not entirely live, said a show insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Geffen spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment.

Simpson's walk-off joins the lore of other unexpected music moments on "SNL": Elvis Costello stopping and changing songs on live TV, and Sinead O'Connor tearing up a picture of the pope.

Thought you'd do a hoe-down? LMAO!

[Durandal]

I'm curious, is there any chance that she wasn't trying to lip synch? For example, the sound technician was supposed to play Song #1 with no vocal track (so she would do the singing herself), but instead he played Song #2 with a vocal track?

Which is apparently what happened, sort of. Even so, falling apart on stage like that is just inexcusable from a performance standpoint. People might bitch about expecting too much from a little girl, but that's just ridiculous. She's a professional performer, and her audiences pay to see a certain amount of quality from her.

Of course SNL may be insanely popular, but I don't care.

Insanely popular? Sure, retards with unsophisticated senses of humor may still watch that drivel, but it's nothing like it was back in the 60's and 70's. It's just total shit at the point. Once responsible for launching the careers of the likes of Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey, it's now producing talentless hacks like Will Ferrel and Adam Sandler. The occasional MadTV episodes I catch are always more original, less formulaic and just plainly funnier. Ever see the Rocket Revengers skit? Hilarious.

Honestly, I never understood why people thought that Will Ferrel was funny. Or Adam Sandler. Or that fucking cheerleading skit that always went on for 15 god damn minutes. Weekend Update has become a pathetic facsimile of what it was with Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd. I still blame Colin Quinn for single-handedly destroying any shred of humor that Norm MacDonald managed to eek out of the worthless material he was getting.

[Kuja]

Don't some live concerts use vocal tracks as backup?

It's kind of expected isn't it? Dancing around for a while would be tiring and then you have to sing.

But, that isn't lip syncing I don't think.

There's a simple solution to that: DON'T DANCE AROUD LIKE A FUCKING STRIPPER.

Oh, wow! Look at all th energy you suddenly have for actually PLAYING A FUCKING INSTRUMENT AND SINGING!!!!!!!

Jesusfuckingchristihatemodernpopmusic.

[Joe]

Insanely popular? Sure, retards with unsophisticated senses of humor may still watch that drivel, but it's nothing like it was back in the 60's and 70's.

It didn't exist back in the 60's.

Once responsible for launching the careers of the likes of Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey, it's now producing talentless hacks like Will Ferrel and Adam Sandler.

Actually, it's producing no one now, except for maybe Tina Fey. She's the only one left on the show IMO with any real star power.

Honestly, I never understood why people thought that Will Ferrel was funny. Or Adam Sandler.

Will Ferrell isn't funny? See some of his better sketches - the cowbell sketch, Harry Carrey, the Ohio State fratboy, his Dubya impression, Jacob Silj, the middle-class guy yelling at his kids - and tell me that shit isn't funny.

Weekend Update has become a pathetic facsimile of what it was with Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd. I still blame Colin Quinn for single-handedly destroying any shred of humor that Norm MacDonald managed to eek out of the worthless material he was getting.

Now I know you haven't watched the show, because Weekend Update is the only thing currently on the show that's worth watching. All the decent writing seems to be saved up for it, and Tina Fey does a great job delivering it. It's better than it's been in years.

That said I do believe the show as it is right now is really awful; I stopped watching in 2002 and I don't intend on starting again. I'm convinced the show runs cyclically; it was good throughout the 70's, slumped a bit in the late 70's and early 80's before Eddie Murphy became a huge player on the show and it rebounded in a huge way, got dull once again in 1984 when Murphy went on to acting, hit it's second peak from 1987-1993 with the arrival of Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Kevin Nealon, Adam Sandler, and certain other cast members, ran into some serious problems in the mid-90's (1995 was probably the worst year in the history of the show's run thus far), rebounded during the late 90's and early 2000's, especially during the 2000 Presidential election, and after Ferrell left took a huge dip to the pit that it's in now. I don't expect it to get any better at any point soon - but you never know when the next Eddie Murphy is going to show up and revitalize the show, so we'll have to see.

[Slartibartfast]

I have but one question: when did Jude Law become a TV show host? The guy played a Russian sniper in a grand WW2 epic, and now he's camera whore for some late night show? Poor guy. Of course SNL may be insanely popular, but I don't care.

That's the whole point of SNL, invite a famous actor (or somebody from Will & Grace if you can't find anyone), make him your guest of honor and at the same time make him host the show. And of course get him to act in various skits... like Celebrity Jeopardy, where they make them impersonate some OTHER celebrity.

I found several of these in this addy: http://mrt300.ods.org/snl/view.php?jeopardy

If you don't have RealPlayer because it sucks, try Real Alternative from here.

[Joe]

Celebrity Jeopardy is sadly defunct. Another sketch that died when Ferrell left. Too bad, 'cause it was comedy gold each and every time.

[Tsyroc]

Today on the radio Mike Evan's reported a rumor (that he seemed to think was true) that the mistake on SNL was on purpose because Ashlee Simpson was such a bitch during rehersals. He wasn't specific about whether it was the band or whoever was playing the vocal track.

[Stormbringer]

Today on the radio Mike Evan's reported a rumor (that he seemed to think was true) that the mistake on SNL was on purpose because Ashlee Simpson was such a bitch during rehersals. He wasn't specific about whether it was the band or whoever was playing the vocal track.

Who knows, wouldn't be the first time a pompus performer was cut down by the little people.

[Kuja]

Celebrity Jeopardy is sadly defunct. Another sketch that died when Ferrell left. Too bad, 'cause it was comedy gold each and every time.

Yeah, but I always thought that 'Sean Connery' was the real star of Celebrity Jeapordy.

"Up yours, Trebek!"

[RedImperator]

The difference between Ashlee Simpson and Milli Vanilli is that Simpson does perform on her own albums, even if she lip synchs live. Someone else was singing for Milli Vanilli, and when the tape skipped at the MTV Video Music Awards, that blew their cover. That's why they had to give their Grammy back.

As for this incident, I was about to jump on the "ha-ha Ashlee Simpson" bandwagon, but the Salon article makes me feel sorry for her. It seems to me she's just some poor dumb kid with a famous sister and a shark for a father. Speaking of sharks, now everyone's going to turn on her for, as the article says, revealing herself to be what they all knew she was anyway.

[Flakin]

At least shes come clean rather than carry on 'blaming the band'.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/149299 ... hlee.jhtml

[Durandal]

Actually, it's producing no one now, except for maybe Tina Fey. She's the only one left on the show IMO with any real star power.

Is she the hot one with the glasses who has the misfortune of doing Weekend Update opposite of Jimmy Fallon?

Will Ferrell isn't funny? See some of his better sketches - the cowbell sketch, Harry Carrey, the Ohio State fratboy, his Dubya impression, Jacob Silj, the middle-class guy yelling at his kids - and tell me that shit isn't funny.

He works in small doses. I thought Anchorman was terrible save for a few parts, and he was totally worthless in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He does the exact same jokes over and over. If it's not some ridiculous slap-stick thing, it's him dragging on about something obvious like, "Oh my head hurts, it really hurts, oh my god it's hurting, someone help me, oh my god my head hurts, I'm losing blood," (this sequence will continue for 15 minutes).

Now I know you haven't watched the show, because Weekend Update is the only thing currently on the show that's worth watching. All the decent writing seems to be saved up for it, and Tina Fey does a great job delivering it. It's better than it's been in years.

I've seen snippets of it, and anything involving Jimmy Fallon is sure to make me roll my eyes. If he's been yanked from Weekend Update, then I could possibly believe you. But I've seen some of Weekend Update with her, and she doesn't strike me as anything special.

That said I do believe the show as it is right now is really awful; I stopped watching in 2002 and I don't intend on starting again. I'm convinced the show runs cyclically; it was good throughout the 70's, slumped a bit in the late 70's and early 80's before Eddie Murphy became a huge player on the show and it rebounded in a huge way, got dull once again in 1984 when Murphy went on to acting, hit it's second peak from 1987-1993 with the arrival of Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Kevin Nealon, Adam Sandler, and certain other cast members, ran into some serious problems in the mid-90's (1995 was probably the worst year in the history of the show's run thus far), rebounded during the late 90's and early 2000's, especially during the 2000 Presidential election, and after Ferrell left took a huge dip to the pit that it's in now. I don't expect it to get any better at any point soon - but you never know when the next Eddie Murphy is going to show up and revitalize the show, so we'll have to see.

The problem now is that their hosts suck, their writers suck and they take no chances. When the show first started out, there were actually talented comedians hosting it, and their monologues were worth watching. Now, every "monologue" by some actor promoting his or her latest movie turns into some stupid affair involving the cast. When Chris Rock hosted it, it was like a breath of fresh air.

And I honestly don't credit Sandler or Spade with anything good in SNL. Sandler is comedy for 15 year-olds, and Spade is now carrying around a giant void of humor about the size of Chris Farly everywhere he goes.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Are there any former SNL writers besides Conan O'Brien that have gone on to great things?

[Durandal]

Are there any former SNL writers besides Conan O'Brien that have gone on to great things?

Sure. Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and all those guys were all writers for SNL, if memory serves. Of course, Chevy Chase became an embittered asshole who went on to make 1 good movie out of about 50,000, but Akroyd and Murray went on to make Ghostbusters.

[Stark]

While this is amusing, its hardly surprising; pop garbage would be nowhere without the power of sound engineering. Think about it; you're a massive music cartel, you've got Ashlee Simpson... do you believe in her talent, or go reliable with prerecording? Like most pop performers don't do it anyway. 'Bankable' does NOT describe this kind of 'performer'. And I resent the stripper comparison; many of my friends have worked as strippers, and they don't pretend to be amazingly talented role model strippers... just strippers

I think its great that there's a whole generation of people who think a live performance sucks if it doesn't sound *exactly* the same as the CD... so I guess the lip-synching apologists will win in the end.

[Flakin]

I think its great that there's a whole generation of people who think a live performance sucks if it doesn't sound *exactly* the same as the CD... so I guess the lip-synching apologists will win in the end.

Oh man, you hit the nail on the head **EXACTLY** I've been to some rock concerts latley where the teeny-rockers wander out going 'That sounded nothing like the CD, it sucked!' - the music companies pick up on this.. and everything will sound exactly the same.

The days of an artist (A true musical artist, other than a popfactory clone) being able to jam on a stage and warp the sound and feeling of ther songs could be coming to an end....