Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Another sign of The Final Days

Word is out that there's a new Billie Holiday biopic in pre-production tentatively slated to star Dana Owens, or, as she is better known, Queen L--l-l-l. . . (no, I simply refuse to call her by her stage name). Owens is flat-out the most overrated one-note thesp in all of the biz. And a cold, joyless, unswinging, airless standards singer to boot, on the couple of occasions where she attempted to do so. A feature-length Jenny Craig musical commercial. . .maybe (The Treadmill Follies?). But, she should keep her hands OFF of Lady Day. There oughta be a law protecting such national treasures.

Last Winter, Owens did a concert at UCLA's Wadsworth (or was it Royce?) Hall and the place was half full. . .or empty. Nearly every movie she makes turns out to be a critical and financial bomb. Especially the last one with (the apparently desperate) Diane Keaton.

Her old core audience feels alienated by all of her mid-career shenanigans to grow, expand and develop as an entertainer, but her new, more uptown, upscale, educated target audience can smell a rat a mile away. Owens should go back and reclaim her rap audience before it's too late.

My guess is that biopic will never come to pass, but if it does, God help us all.

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