Lucy Lawless on
Celebrity Duets

Lucy on Duets: Week Three Friday
15 September 2006

Review by KT
fsktl@uaf.edu

Lucy on Duets: Week Three Friday

Wayne starts off by saying, "Legendary artist Dionne Warwick was a natural
fit for this show. especially now that she’s set to release 'My Friends
And Me', an album of duets. (I wonder if she’ll make everybody sing her
hard to sing songs on there.)

"And though Lucy Lawless was initially nervous to sing with this
superstar, she triumphed in last night’s performance." Triumphed huh? I
guess they’ve counted the votes and discounted the judges’ snippier
statements.

"Will Lucy’s nerves get the best of her tonight? Or can she once again
prevail?"
 



Behind the scenes segment: Lucy is talking, saying that she thought the
first day’s song would be a little harder but it turned out it was great
for her voice. (As I said before--lower register—I liked it a lot.) Shot of her and Dionne working together. Dionne dressed very casually, sweatshirt jacket,
t-shirt, baseball cap. Lucy in a lovely casual green frock. Which we later
see offers deep cleavage viewing.

Lucy and Dionne are standing together in the practice studio in front of
mikes. Lucy looks like a very eager but slightly worried student. She’s
wary almost, her eyes keep glancing over towards Dionne as she performs.
She seems to be waiting for the reprimand but hoping for some praise. (I
think I see a glimpse of Lucy, the head girl at her school, working with
one of the more strict nuns on something she really hopes to get right.)

Lucy says that the next song was deceptively hard.

Dionne, stopping the music and slapping her hands together says calmly,
"No, no. Sing the right note. Just sing the right note."

Lucy, "Beat me into shape."

Dionne with a very somber face, "Hmm hmmmm."

ARGH! ARGH! While trying to rewind to hear just what Dionne said next, I
hit "record" instead of "pause". And now have a snippet of commercial in
there! ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

So what we have NOW is Dionne lecturing Lucy, pointing a long index finger
at her, "You sing the lead notes." (Lucy is looking at her intently,
listening hard.) Dionne continues, "People don’t hear people singing
(that?) music. And it’s because they are not. . ." (commercial blares for two
seconds) "BANK AT CITI BA. . ." (Dionne) ". . .thing". Wayne’s voice cuts in.
"Maybe not, but Lucy is determined to get it right."

(Great—since I’ve lost that piece of advice from Dionne, I’ll never make it
as a singer now!)

Dionne sings, "No one" and Lucy repeats, "For me there is no one, but
yououou", shadowing Dionne.

Cut to Dionne saying, "When I first heard her do it I was quite impressed,
I must say. All the notes were there."

Lucy interrupts, "With the exception of two, right?" as she holds up two
of her own incredibly long fingers.

"Only two" Dionne says in a "that’s not so bad" tone, mimicking Lucy’s fingers gesture. Lucy meanwhile looks at whoever is talking to them off screen, grins and points her thumb at Dionne with a "Isn’t she something" look on her face.

Cut back to them practicing again. Dionne looks towards someone off camera
and swings her hand towards Lucy, palm out as if presenting her and says,
"Ah, she’s wonderful".

Cut to Dionne talking directly into the camera saying, "America’s gonna
embrace her. I think she’s going to do very well." Dionne has such a calm,
serene manner. She’s like holy or something!

Now it just struck me that this is the chance for people outside of the
Xena fandom to "meet" Luce. To see her humor and her playfulness and how
easily she bonds with many different type of people. This may turn into
something really good for her.

Back to the studio. Wayne introduces them.



Dionne comes out, thanks the audience for their applause. And then begins
to sing, "I Know I’ll Never Love This Way Again."

We hear Lucy singing the next lines and then she walks down the ramp in
this amazing peach slinky dress. She gives a few pretty dramatic gestures,
on the line, "So I keep holding on."

Dionne’s voice comes soaring in. Wow, that woman can sing.

Dionne continues to sing. Lucy just groves on it. She puts her right arm
way up in the air and in time to the music, moves her hand up and down as
she points down at Dionne singing her heart out. Lucy just can’t keep still and shares her joy in Dionne’s glorious singing with the audience, looking out at them with great glee, just shaking her head in time to the music.

With the slinky, glittery, form-fitting dress and her hairstyle, Lucy has
a very Forties look going on.

Damn, Lucy is having SUCH a good time. To me she gets overly dramatic in
gesture and voice styling for the next few lines. She kind of lost the
thread in a way. But she gets it back by the end and their last harmonic
"Hold On" sung together is very sweet.



They hug as the audience applauds and cheers and Wayne notes, "A standing
‘O’ in the house!"

Shot of a man and woman holding a sign saying, "Lucy down under thunder."

Dionne leaves, (Wayne calling her sweetheart—that should be Ms.
Sweetheart, buddy—scowl). He says to Lucy that Marie felt she was timid
last night but that tonight she seems very comfortable. He asks her what
made the difference.

Lucy says well maybe she was a bit timid last night. She says that she
listens to the judges and takes what she thinks is good out of it. "And
um, well, it’s Dionne Warwick you know, so I could be a little overawed by
her. Then Ricky Menard (?), our band leader said to me, ‘Just go out there and
be the big drama queen we know you really are’ (She laughs as she says this.) ‘I thought, ‘YEAH, I can do that!’". And she breaks out into laughter again.

Woah! Sloppy camera work—as Lucy starts to talk, the camera slides off her
face and goes for a little swing across the stage. Well—this is FOX after
all. . .

Wayne says, "Well here we go, Lucy Lawless". He’s holding her card in his
hand. He talks about how last week America decided she should stay but
it’s a new week and anything can happen. Lucy composes herself and begins
to get that intent listening look on her face again. (She also gives a little tucking in movement of her head and neck as she prepares herself for the consequences that struck me as a very Gabriellian gesture.)

Wayne is saying, "I have to tell you Lucy that unfortunately, (pause)
(during which Lucy’s eyes get wider as she looks at Wayne, very
expectantly waiting for his next words), you have to wait until after Hal
performs to find out what happens to you." Lucy starts to grin then
clenches her fists, leans over and darkly grinds out, "Damn you, Reb Baron". Wayne replies in a deep fake voice, "HA HA, MY PLAN WORKED!" And then he introduces Hal and his singing partner.

At the end of Hal’s song, they bring Lucy back out. Big applause as she
comes out. Man, she is just SO furken gorgeous. Though Wayne asks Lucy to
stand at his right side, she immediately goes over to Hal on Wayne's left
side and hugs him. Wayne orders them, "Stay right there." Lucy puts her arm
around Hal’s shoulder and leans on him like he’s a lamppost and she’s Lili
Marlene. Wayne is talking about one of them taking the last spot in the
bottom three. "Who will it be?" Hal raises his eyebrows. Lucy goes from
gorgeous to silly in a nanosecond, making a big "Who can say?" face and
shrugging. Then she laughs and leans into Hal and touches foreheads with
him. He’s grinning now also.

Wayne says "I’m gonna tell you. . ." Lucy gets that entreating expectant
look again. Wayne continues, ". . .right after the break."



They come back with Lucy and Hal now on Wayne’s right. Wayne draws it out.
Close-ups of Lucy and Hal’s faces as they wait. Wayne says that one will
be going to the bottom three. And that the other was the top vote getter
last night. I love watching Lucy watching for her fate.

Now sadly, I got spoiled on Lucy’s official list from some of the subject lines that said "LUCY WAS THE TOP VOTE GETTER!" (apparently my spoiler avoidance skills have gotten rusty—WHY did I not realize I probably shouldn’t go on there after the show had started on the east coast?) so I knew that that the top vote getter someone was Lucy. If I hadn’t known that I would have been on the edge of my seat, because I think Hal is a top contender due to being popular. Obviously, he’s not as popular as I think he is—wasn’t he in the bottom three right from the beginning? Wayne continues to draw it out. Lucy raises her hand towards him and makes a little impatient gesture and her lips move, looks like she says, "Go on. Go on."

We finally find out Hal is in the bottom three. Lucy focuses on Hal and
gives him a smooch on the cheek. She says something to Hal, squeezes his
hand and just quietly turns around and walks off without any triumphant
winner stuff from her.

Cut to Hal’s girlfriend in the audience who gives the thumbs down as Lucy walks off.

Eventually, we find out that Carly is the one who is eliminated.

They all come back out. Lucy is once again right behind the leaving one.
Lucy keeps applauding for Carly. And then very odd—they suddenly take a
very tight close up of Lucy’s eyes. Then they go into a retrospective of
Carly’s time on Celeb Duets. Everybody comes back on stage and sings.

And that's it for this week. The tension builds. . . (Hey, I sound just like Wayne!)

 


 


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