Entertainment in the time of Coronavirus
All this downtime and we need diversions from the grim news more than ever. Unfortunately, the people who do the entertaining are also at home. But "so it's on with the show" isn't just a song lyric clearly because they are doing their job of keeping us entertained in whatever way they can. I'm not sure the personality type synonymous with being a successful performer is suited to being cooped up and idle. These are people who are used to being busy and having an audience. Some are doing better than others. Madonna appears to have come down with a severe case of cabin fever. Arnold Schwarzenegger is being surprisingly endearing by doing PSAs in his kitchen, with his pet miniature horses for company. Even more surprising than this, however, has got to be a call for a general strike and wage subsidies in the United States by...(checks notes) Britney Spears. Never had her pegged as having a political opinion, let alone a socialist one.
Some things give you a start - seeing Mel Brooks' name trending in these times filled me with dread but it was fine - he was just being civic minded and doing a PSA #dontbeaspreader, with his son, Max.
American national treasure, Tom Hanks, on the other hand, was the first big name to come down with Covid-19. Not only that but he was on the Gold Coast at the time. He or his wife Rita Wilson may well be Australia's patient zero. From now on, he will be known as "Hanksy" as is the Australian way. He has also learnt, possibly the hard way, the correct way to spread Vegemite on toast.
With gigs, concerts, cinemas, theatres and so on being cancelled (and while some are multi-millionaires, they are the exceptions, not the rule - on average performers don't have job security and are living job to job) a lot of celebs have taken to entertaining us via social media. Some performances are very good (check out Pink's cover of "To Bring You My Love"). I'm not sure why I was surprised (my bad) to find out John Legend has such a good voice. It could be one of the unintended consequences of this pandemic - we'll find out who can really sing and who needs autotune. So the musos are doing little unplugged concerts which can be found by searching YouTube or Instagram on #togetherathome.
But the actors are struggling. We should collectively agree to forget the clip of various actors singing "Imagine". James McAvoy shared a chicken curry recipe on Instagram. Florence Pugh is dancing and doing cooking demonstrations. Patrick Stewart is reading Shakespeare's sonnets. The most helpful celeb award though would have to go to Kristen Bell who has been putting up all sorts of useful graphs and charts and instructions on Instagram. I mean, I'm glad someone in the United States is on the ball and getting information out there - their government is mired in self-interest. Bit of politics - fair enough (and there'll be more later).
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| Arnie with his pet miniature horses. This really happened. |
Some things give you a start - seeing Mel Brooks' name trending in these times filled me with dread but it was fine - he was just being civic minded and doing a PSA #dontbeaspreader, with his son, Max.
American national treasure, Tom Hanks, on the other hand, was the first big name to come down with Covid-19. Not only that but he was on the Gold Coast at the time. He or his wife Rita Wilson may well be Australia's patient zero. From now on, he will be known as "Hanksy" as is the Australian way. He has also learnt, possibly the hard way, the correct way to spread Vegemite on toast.
With gigs, concerts, cinemas, theatres and so on being cancelled (and while some are multi-millionaires, they are the exceptions, not the rule - on average performers don't have job security and are living job to job) a lot of celebs have taken to entertaining us via social media. Some performances are very good (check out Pink's cover of "To Bring You My Love"). I'm not sure why I was surprised (my bad) to find out John Legend has such a good voice. It could be one of the unintended consequences of this pandemic - we'll find out who can really sing and who needs autotune. So the musos are doing little unplugged concerts which can be found by searching YouTube or Instagram on #togetherathome.
But the actors are struggling. We should collectively agree to forget the clip of various actors singing "Imagine". James McAvoy shared a chicken curry recipe on Instagram. Florence Pugh is dancing and doing cooking demonstrations. Patrick Stewart is reading Shakespeare's sonnets. The most helpful celeb award though would have to go to Kristen Bell who has been putting up all sorts of useful graphs and charts and instructions on Instagram. I mean, I'm glad someone in the United States is on the ball and getting information out there - their government is mired in self-interest. Bit of politics - fair enough (and there'll be more later).
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