Heath Ledger passed away this week, and in all the years we've been doing this show, we've never had cause to mention him.
He said something to this effect: "And one last thing. The episode passed without any mention, until the very end, when Joel's smirky countenance turned serious and a little angry. A few days later, it was Friday and I wondered what, if anything, Joel would say to mark the occasion (especially since the tabloids were rearing their monstrous heads, threatening to release a video of Heath in an altered state and badgering poor Michelle Williams). Like many others my age and otherwise, I was devastated by the sudden death of Heath Ledger, a genuine talent whose personal darkness got the best of him much too early. But he also knows that famous people are humans too, and there are occasions where skewering just isn't appropriate. McHale, he eats stupid celebrities for breakfast, lunch and dinner on The Soup, and we adore him for saying what we're all thinking in funny, well-chosen words. I'm sure he wasn't 100% perfect, but who is?
He stayed married to Lisa Niemi, a fellow dancer in his age range, his whole adult life. He loved his dance teacher mom, and even teamed up with her for a dance video in the late eighties (which my mom ordered from the Avon catalog).
Come on, it's far from the best moment in the movie but it's quoted all. (I have heard that he didn't like the line "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" and would only utter it once, but honestly, I can't really blame the guy. That said, I don't ever remember hearing about Patrick Swayze getting a case of road rage, partying with 15-year-olds, or whaling on some unsuspecting fan for requesting an autograph. Granted, I don't know what goes on behind closed doors. I turned to my sister, sighed and said, "And they canceled Arrested Development." EXACTLY ONE MILLISECOND LATER, Joel looked at the camera, sighed and said, "And they canceled Arrested Development." Color me a superfan.Ģ. It's an understatement to say that I wasn't the most pleasant lady to be around back then.) Until one day when my sister was visiting and on TV, Joel introduced the Clip of the Week: a truly terrible boob-grabbing moment between Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra on the abysmal Foxcom Stacked. (It probably didn't help that TS was relaunched as The Soup when I was in law school, when I wasn't much enamored of anything. (In case you recall that historic airing: NO, that was not me making out with my boyfriend in the audience because we correctly assumed it would get us camera time.) So I wasn't immediately enamored of Joel's preppy appearance and dry delivery. I even attended a live taping of Talk Soup in Chicago ten years ago. My first reaction to Joel McHale was, "Ugh, who's this frat boy?" Though I could appreciate Aisha Tyler and Greg Kinnear, I was first and foremost loyal to John "Skunkboy" Henson, host of The Show Formerly Known as Talk Soup. Whether he was swiveling his hips, comforting his pal Penny, or yelling at Baby not to put her heel down, he made Johnny Castle pop off the screen as more than just a droolworthy rebel, but a hard-knock guy who also became a better person that fateful summer of '63. Not just for the excellent daddy-daughter/good girl-bad boy drama, not just for the politically active teenage girl lead (far from a bland ingenue), not just for the sweet moves. Someone popped in Dirty Dancing, and I was hooked. Then, when I was fifteen, I was at a lock-in, mourning the fact that my former best friend was hanging with his ditzy girl of the moment instead of me. Though she did concede to renting it and letting me watch the electrifying final number, she drew the line at the entire movie-and with good reason, looking back, as the abortion subplot is definitely not something I'd want my (hypothetical) seven-year-old to ask me questions about. I didn't see Dirty Dancing when it first came out-I was in second grade, and my mom closely monitored what I watched. They won me over from a place of utter skepticism. The blog post: 5 reasons why I love them both.ġ. Then, like the dorky bespectacled boy BFF in a classic teencom, I realized what I really wanted was right in front of me all along: a recently-departed dancer-turned-actor who was not only lusted after but respected in 80's nostalgia AND cult circles, and a cable comedian coming into his own while remaining sheepishly humble about his well-earned success. I mean, Kanye's a talented douchebag, everyone's up in arms over whether Megan Fox can actually act, and OMG, Pam on The Office is pregnant! It's all been done, several times over, by better bloggers than I. I was agonizing over the subject of this week's post.