Filming commenced this month, the first images are out, and here's the proof; Beyoncé really is playing Etta James in the upcoming Cadillac Records. This film is not a biopic of James (though that's not a bad idea), but a chronicle of the fortunes of Chicago record label Chess Records and its musicians. The cast includes Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters.

So here's a look at Beyoncé and the original.

And here's the first image off the set.

Even though this is not a biopic, the casting, you can imagine, is a topic for fairly ugly debate (even NPR had a blogger roundtable partially devoted to it). I do wonder about the wisdom of the role as a career move, at least for the negative press it's generating, including the inevitable references to the supposed Beyoncé/Jennifer Hudson rivalry following Hudson's Oscar win for Dreamgirls. And much (annoying) speculation about whether Beyoncé will be gaining weight or wearing prosthetics to look more like James. Can I take this moment to say that the young Etta James was no Twiggy, but she was certainly not fat? … continue reading

Right off the bat, let me disclose that my taste in love songs is not always conventional; the song that consistently moves me to tears is "Commitment" from the musical 1776. (Picture John and Abigail Adams expressing their love by sending each other saltpeter and pins. It's very moving. Really.) But my idiosyncratic tastes aside, when I think of love songs, I think emotional, a little girly, occasionally bombastic. (Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" immediately comes to mind.) So when I saw that Entertainment Weekly had compiled a list of the 25 Best Love Songs Ever, I expected a little girl power. However, it seems that songs become more "swoon-worthy" when they pass a bobbing Adam's apple on the way out. A full 78% of the songs on the list were recorded by men.

Women do occupy a few prominent spots. Most notably, Aretha Franklin comes in at spot number four with her version of "(You Make Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

Certainly no reasonable person could object to this placement. Also in the top 10 is Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You." … continue reading