everything old is loud again!
So what's it like to be a famous actor, and a cast member of one of televisions most beloved sit coms? What MASH was for baby boomers Friends was for Gen X'ers - though without the political protest, idealism, of pretense of concern with anything out side or beyond one's own limited existence and confined social circle (Still it was a very good show, MASH I mean). Now if Matt LeBlanc wasn't the Alan Alda of the show - that honor goes unquestionably to Jennifer Ansiton, he was certainly the Wayne Rogers, or perhaps even MacLean Stevenson (BTW that makes Courtney Cox the Hotlips, Daivd Schwimmer is Frank Burns, and Matthew Perry - wait a minute maybe Perry is Alda and Aniston is more of a Mike Farrell...). The point is that he was no Gary Burghoff - that's Lisa Kudrow's role! Yet that's exactly what the entertainment media is making him out to be. Naturally LeBlanc is pissed!How pissed? Well Matt was over in Merry Ole England recently to give an interview to the UK Mirror (the Mirror is one of those fishwrappers frequently involved in multi million dollar libel cases, when they're not paying a small fortune to some prostitute to tell them how long David Beckham's dick is - so they kind of serve as an inspiration for online gossip bloggers!) . Matt however wasn't so merry. While sitting down for the interview LeBlanc accidentally knocked over a glass of water. The reporter naturally assumed that LeBlanc was referencing his lovably thick Friends character and blurted "You all right, Joey? How YOU do-in?" The paper should've sent some one along who was experienced enough to know that you don't say things like that to a former somebody. I guess they just didn't think Joey was worth the consideration.
Joey LeBlanc thought that it was worth consideration. He considered it enough at the time to blow his stack over it. By blow his stack I mean that he said "I'm not Joey. Don't you dare call me Joey. The papers say I'm finished, so don't call me f**king Joey. I want to leave that all behind. I'm moving on." Just in case the reporter didn't catch that Joey went on "I'm not Joey. For the last time. I'm not f**king Joey. It's Matt. Matt LeBlanc. Joey's in the past. I'm trying to do something new."
Now that's not what Joey usually says. Joey usually tries to make the best of it by telling people what they want to hear. Things like "If people really believe me as that character, I have done my job. I don't look on it as a negative thing. I take it as a compliment.", which got brought up In a recent interview.Now if that's eating shit and calling it sugar, then it's only because the man is a consummate professional. Kind of the way Lynda Carter was - during her drinking period - whenever some owner from one of the thousands of online Wonder Woman fans sites would call her up for some comments to add to his latest podcast. If Lynda was 3 sheets to the wind at the time she might be heard getting impatient, and even showing some low key sarcasm -"Oh yeah, good ole Wonder Woman. We gotta keep ole Wonder Woman kicking - woo hooo!"
Also you have to consider the strain that Joey is under recently. His last show was the short lived Friends spin off Joey which didn't make 13 episodes. His new project is a freak show called Matt LeBlanc where Joey plays a character called Matt LeBlanc that isn't the real Matt LeBlanc, but based on public perceptions about who LeBlanc is. So there's probably way too much Joey in there. Also it might mess with Joey's sense of reality - that's tenuous in actors at the best of times. More over actors, unlike regular folk, don't find the best in themselves during adversity.
So perhaps Joey thought he was in character like Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman a year back; and again a couple of nights ago. Or even like William Shatner on Saturday Night Live when he told the nerds to "get a life". Now if they'd listened to that there'd never have been a comic con 2010! Everyone knew Capt. Kirk didn't mean it - if people got a life than no one would watch TV and movies!It was the same kind of sly self parody (on Joey's part) that has made William Shatner once again a household name to a generation of people to young to remember Star Trek as anything but a reference for the Next Generation Movies and Deep Space: Voyager - "7 of 9, summon the Bjork!" JOey has been around long enough to know that no matter how hopeless associated with a role you have become there is an eventual chance to get past it by owning it through self referential culturally relevant parody. Just like Betty White! Unless you're Gary Coleman. So pipe down Joey, you'll be just fine in 15 to 25 years!
