I have a crush on Steve Martin.
It’s mostly a mental crush, I admit. Something about seeing him as an object of physical lust — like in “Shopgirl” — is still a little weird for me. So maybe, maybe I have a crush on Steve Martin’s brain. This is, after all, the brain that created “The Jerk,” but also the aforementioned “Shopgirl,” the brain a top the “Wild and Crazy Guy” that also put together a hilarious and thoughtful play about Einstein meeting Picasso in a coffee shop.
And with the brilliance comes, of course, some missteps, because to be a brilliant writer in our times means, usually, a brilliantly empty bank account. Steve Martin has used his comedic success to fund some of his more thoughtful pieces (I would guess “Cheaper by the Dozen” paid for “Shopgirl”), but he’s also done some tremendously broad comedies — The Pink Panther; The House Sitter — that make it hard to say, Sure, I’ll see that guy in anything. So it wouldn’t seem he’s actually a candidate for The Crush List as defined in Kristen’s kick-off post.
I wasn’t at all interested in seeing the Pink Panther movies until this week, when Steve Martin, after what was apparently a tepid performance on SNL, appeared on “The Colbert Report” to parody our last entry on the Shut-Up List, Christian Bale:
That was followed by a strangely funny but mild interview with Colbert that ended, oh yes, in a Banjo/Guitar duel:
Now, a guy who’s that reasonable and funny at the same time — maybe I should trust his selection in movies. Maybe I should just say, you know, if it’s good enough for Steve Martin to put his name on it, maybe it’s good enough for me to see in the theater.
Maybe, when “Pink Panther 2″ comes to the $1.50 theater, I’ll make good on that.
5 responses so far ↓
Kristen // February 8, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I’ll have a crush on Steve Martin forever. Three reasons:
1. “Shopgirl.”
2. “Parenthood.”
3. His thoughtful and moving cameo as the brother of a man who died of AIDS in “And The Band Played On.”
Jenn // February 8, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I love Parenthood! Love it. Early Leonardo DiCaprio, too, right? He’ll have to go on the list here in a bit.
You know what else I’ll totally admit to loving? Steve Martin in “Father of the Bride.” Both of those movies can reduce me to tears of laughter and, well, the teary kind.
It took me about eight years to get the video to work on this post. Is it showing up OK for you?
Kristen // February 8, 2009 at 10:25 pm
The video looks good. I can’t ever get Things-Not-YouTube to work….
Jenn // February 9, 2009 at 2:36 am
I added the VodPod extension to Firefox/Flock, and have ended up using that.
Kristen // February 12, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I have that now. I’ll see if it works for me.