S-Jo

I read recently that Scarlett Johannson (Ghost World, Lost in Translation) is planning to put out a record.

My first thought was of Jennifer Lopez, who was starting to become interesting as an actress, and then churned out an album of pre-fab "music" which sold a ton of copies and she never did anything interesting again. She did Selena and Out of Sight before her record, and The Wedding Planner, Gigli and Monster-in-Law after. 'Nuff said.

But this might be a bit different. 22-year-old Johannson is recording an entire album of Tom Waits covers. Which is both ambitious and potentially cool. And I'm told that she can actually sing.

I'm guessing she's going to avoid the more raucously weird stuff and concentrate on his ballads. "Innocent When You Dream" or "Hold On" over "Fillipino Box Spring Hog" or "Earth Died Screaming." Maybe she'll do one or two of his monologue songs as well. And she's putting it out on Rhino, which has indie cred. So maybe she's doing this because she likes to sing and she likes Tom Waits songs. In which case, good for her.

And Scarlett, if you read The Moon Topples, I can tell you that "Chocolate Jesus" translates quite nicely into a jazzy little number which is ridiculously easy to sing for those of us who shop for our microphones in the "husky" section.

In other news, the guitarist left Duran Duran, a mere 20 years after most of us thought they broke up. Reese Witherspoon broke up with her husband, I guess because she has an Oscar now. And Saw 4 will be out next Halloween. Thank goodness. I was so worried they'd stop at 3. So many unanswered questions. Like why do they keep greenlighting sequels before there's even a script?

Is it possible I did this post to have an excuse to look at a bunch of pics of Scarlett Johannson to accompany it? And that I just tacked on that last paragraph of "entertainment news" to cover my tracks?

Well, I suppose anything's possible.