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Surprise! Katharine McPhee looks hot on a magazine cover… oh, wait. I guess that isn’t such a surprise after all.
Anyway… Kat is gracing the cover of Peach magazine. Here’s the interview:
When Katharine McPhee calls me at the end of her first day of filming, she is giddy with excitement. It is hard to believe that only a few months ago, when McPhee and I first met, she still only dreamed of becoming an actor. In fact, it was failing to get parts in films that made this leggy Valley Girl try out for American Idol. “I was looking for anything that was going to give me a new experience,” McPhee says, recalling her pre-Idol mindset. “I wanted to change my life.”
More after the jump!
She didn’t win television’s most popular singing competition, but, at 23, McPhee is now a recording artist—a dream she had practically given up on when she dropped out of college to pursue acting—and is making a movie. Her schedule is one of perpetual motion: appearances, parties, concerts, photo shoots, rehearsals and a supporting role in the Adam Sandler-produced film House Bunny. “I’m playing a really fun part,” McPhee says of her character, a pregnant hippie living in a sorority house. Written by Legally Blonde screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, the comedy is a “very cute, young, fun, flirty girl movie,” according to McPhee. She has also lined up her next movie role, as the leading lady in the darkly romantic indie The Last Caller, one she hopes “people in the industry will pay attention to.”
As she walks into the Los Angeles studio of Hollywood photographer Giuliano Bekor for the Atlanta Peach shoot, McPhee looks uncannily like Catherine Zeta-Jones. She has just flown in from Italy, where for two weeks she was promoting Sexy Hair products; she landed the gig as spokesperson for the company after Idol. She is wearing dark Earnest Sewn skinny jeans and a vest that exposes her considerable cleavage, and she is badly in need of a manicure. A makeup artist immediately starts creating sexy smudgy eyes, while a hairstylist wraps the singer’s long brown strands around rollers. “I have to pinch myself a lot now!” she says, looking around. “It’s pretty amazing.”
In just over a year since Idol, McPhee has graced the covers of at least a dozen magazines, been named one of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” and has been nominated for a Teen Choice Award. “It feels like a dream,” McPhee says and then laughs, remembering how she once could not hold a single job for longer than a month, going from an office assistant to clothing-store clerk to restaurant hostess in order to support her artistic ambitions. “I’d be so bored,” she says.
Bekor walks in on our conversation with several dresses in hand and holds them next to McPhee’s glowing skin and freshly curled mane. “I only want couture!” he commands. “I just hope I fit into all these dresses,” McPhee says with a smile, examining Bekor’s picks: a collection of tiny frocks from such names as Dolce & Gabbana and Tadashi.
Moments later she is posing in a form-fitting golden D&G number paired with Sergio Rossi stilettos and breaking into snatches of song. For the next eight hours, McPhee changes from one glamorous gown to another, flirting with the camera with the skill of a model. You almost forget that singing is what brought her here.Every season of Idol has had its share of surprises, and the fifth was no different. McPhee was positioned among her competition, so it seemed, as an old-fashioned vocalist with a fan-favored rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” But when she nailed KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” it became clear that McPhee could do lighter pop fare just as well. “It’s harder for someone like me to find my true voice,” she confesses. “I can sing like a country singer, I can sing like a jazz singer, I can sing like a Broadway singer, a pop singer; I can imitate Christina [Aguilera], I can mimic Shakira. It’s kind of a blessing and a curse.” So when she made it into the show’s top 12, McPhee remembers thinking how far she had come. “You know that feeling when you get butterflies in your stomach? Times that by 10—consistently for about three months.”
The butterflies are gone, but her stomach is still the center of her attention: she is wearing a prosthetic baby bump reportedly once donned by Nicole Kidman. “I am really a full nine months pregnant, ready to burst at any second,” McPhee says with a laugh. Her character, Harmony, is the kind of dressed-down, laid-back person to whom McPhee can relate. “Although I do love dressing up and being fashionable sometimes, this role is fun for me because Harmony definitely likes to party and do all kinds of crazy things. But she’s not quite put together,” McPhee explains. “[Acting] is something that I want to do for a long time.”
Years ago, when things didn’t line up in her pre-Idol career, McPhee turned to musical theater, which is where she met her boyfriend, Nick Cokas. It was an instant attraction, and the two have been inseparable ever since. “We spent every second together,” reminisces McPhee of the time she and Cokas were unemployed. “My agent wasn’t sending me on any auditions, and [Nick] was kind of having a hard time with his work, so we literally would go get coffee every day and sit and talk all day long.” Today, both are busy with their own projects, and Cokas is one of the producers of The Last Caller. When will the two get married? “I’ll let that be a surprise.” But a wedding and children are both on her five-year plan. “I hope to successfully move into the film business, have continuous projects and have a baby in the foreseeable future,” she points out. “I want to be a young mother.”
It was the “mother” comment that had McPhee on the defensive after Stuff magazine printed her glib answer to the question of wanting children. She says she was joking when she told the reporter, “I want to have 15 babies.” Pretty soon the number was appearing everywhere next to her name, and McPhee couldn’t believe it. For now, she is content taking care of her two Chihuahuas, Nena and Larry. She takes Nena wherever she goes. “[Larry] is too young right now to take to the set,” she says. “He’s so small, not even a pound and a half.”
As we finish our coffee at a neighborhood café in Sherman Oaks, a little boy approaches our table. He is the son of the owners and wants to say hello. An older man having pastries with his granddaughter asks for an autograph. People stare, though McPhee is wearing no makeup and is clad in a plaid trench coat over her white T-shirt and jeans, her hair pulled back and twisted into a loose knot. But she just smiles and waves. “My mom has been coming here with me and my sister for years,” she notes. This is the San Fernando Valley, where she grew up.
The second daughter of a cabaret-singer mother and a producer father, McPhee comes from a solidly middle-class, tight-knit family that instilled a love for the arts in her and her older sister, Adriana. Ever since they were young, both girls wanted to be in show business. “When my grandma and grandpa came over, my sister and I had shows: We had puppet shows, dance shows, singing shows, plays in the back yard. We’d have them even if nobody was watching,” she recalls. “We both had big aspirations, and my dad was like, ‘Please! Not only do I have two girls, but they both want to be in the entertainment business!’ ” But to this day her parents are her biggest supporters.
Naturally, with her newfound star appeal, McPhee gets a lot of advice. But the counsel she holds dearest is Simon Cowell’s off-camera, post-Idol comment. “He said, ‘You really have a lot more to show America.’ I got that.” And McPhee is acting on it, too. Her eponymous album, which debuted on RCA in January, has been a solid success, with two hit singles, “Over It” and “Love Story.” “It’s very cliché for a singer to want to become an actress,” she concedes. “But I want to do something different that’s going to introduce you to a different person.” And then she surprises me with her ambition. “I want to be the Barbra Streisand of this generation,” she says. “I want to be someone who is remembered as being great at all things: in film, music, theater. I want to have a solid career.”
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Just as I have always said: she took a spot away from someone else who really wanted to sing just to jump start her modeling acting carreer!
I look at her poses and she is just not believable. It all seems so contrived. And her voice does not move me one bit.
Sorry, she thinks she is all that and a bag of chips, but she is not. And everything is about showing her body, not talent.
But then again, she is just not that talented except to show off her body.
looks like she has constipation! lol
Hm. Funny. I wasn’t aware that just because you were a singer, you weren’t allowed to be a model or an actor as well.
Maybe we should just take that Triple Threat award away from Justin Timberlake then since having multiple talents is obviously not allowed.
I personally think Katharine looks amazing.
Queena,
I did not say that. What I said was she took a spot away from someone on AI who really wanted a singing career just to use it as a stepping stone to be an actress and model. She is NOT a good singer and never really intended to pursue a singing career in the first place.
No need to twist my words around. Obviously you are a fan of hers and I am not.
[...] here for full [...]
What I don’t understand is how you can say that she “took” the spot away from someone else. It’s not as if she predicted that she’d make it into the top two. Her fans did that for her. And if you’re paying any attention to the charts right now, Daughtry and Elliott — regardless of the fact that they’re 2nd and 3rd runner-ups, are doing much better musically than Katharine. To say that she “took” the spot of someone else, is just an incorrect statement in general.
So what happens when your music career isn’t taking off like you want it to and your record label isn’t helping to push your singles? You look to other measures. I think Kat in general is trying to keep her name out there .. whether it’s by modeling (which she only does for magazine photoshoots so .. I don’t really consider that modeling much) or acting, which is what she was good at to begin with. I don’t see why Kat’s any different from say, Jennifer Hudson?
Your opinion may be that Kat isn’t a great singer. I personally don’t think she’s got the best vocals by any means, but some of the cover stuff she sings in concert is absolutely amazing. I think Kat’s someone who’s got the whole package and has some sort of talent in everything, which I find makes her very well-rounded in the entertainment industry.
We are each entitled to our own opinion. My opinion is she NEVER intended to have a singing career as a first line in the first place. She merely wanted to use AI to jump start her acting career. That is why I say she took a spot away from someone else who was not even picked for the final 10 or twelve.
She really doesn’t have the vocals compared to the others, that’s for sure. I can hear a dozen people in a karoake bar sing just as good if not better than her.
Just my opinion and you are entitled to yours.
So what if she never intendeda music career?
Took a spot? That is the judges (ahem – producers) call – a person doesn’t get to take a spot, they are selected. The closest anyone came to taking a spot was Carmen, who was selected for the wild card even though she did not even make it to Hollywood. One thing I will say, I have never heard Katharine diss the show like others from her year saying that it was cheesy and indicating tyhat she was above such a thing, hence the audience was not cool (i.e. and all the resulting fans are not cool).
The fact that Kat got to the finals should be an indication that she could sing well enough. Even if some people like me did not particularly care for her voice, others obviously loved it and voted for her. It is a matter of taste and she has fans who have a right to enjoy her.
I go back to Daughtry agaoin, who tried out for Rock!Star! and didn’t make the cut, hence settled for AI as second best, and thereby stole a spot from someone who probably loved the show and had a pop career in mind. I am not picking on him because I don’t like him, I don’t like the attitude toward a show that brought him to his career that he would not have had, but for appearing on the show.
I agree with Jean. I’ve never heard Kat diss American Idol, each time she has had nothing but good things to say about the show — even when they never even asked her back to perform this past season, but instead asked Kellie Pickler who finished in 6th place? Hm. Stealing a spot indeed.
If you did any sort of research on what kind of girl Kat is, you’d realize that she treats her fans with the uttermost love. When she was on tour, she’d do daily myspace videos leave comments on other peoples’ pages.
But of course, all people care is how phony, fake, and craptastic she is because she used American Idol to jumpstart her career.
I never made any kind of statement as to how she treats her fans or whether or not she dissed AI or not.
It is just my opinion she not that good of a singer, and although she knows how to show off her body, her modeling to me in regards to her poses and facial expressions are very contrived. She is just not that believable or talented to me. That fake sultry expression above speaks for itself. She just does not have “IT” in my opinion.
And the fact that she got to the finals means absolutely nothing to me. After AI-2 that show became nothing more than a popularity contest with real talent thrown to the side!
To each his own.
If the fact that she got to the finals of AI means nothing to you and apparently AI is nothing more than a popularity contest, then why are you so worked up about the fact that she “stole” someone’s spot?
To each his own indeed.
There are still those who try out hoping talent WILL win over popularity, that is why!
Spin your excuses for her anyway you feel you need to Queena, that won’t make Katherine anymore talented.
She is just not my cup of tea and I am entitled to share my opinion here.
I don’t feel a need to be spinning excuses. I find Katharine to be a million times more likeable and talented than 90% of the celebrities out there.
You’re welcomed to share your opinion about her as am I. However, I just don’t understand why people feel the need to bring so much negativity into a topic of a celebrity that they don’t like. Last time I checked, negativity never made the world a better place.
[...] a surprise after all. Anyway
Opinions are not always going to be favorable.
Are you are saying a person cannot share an opinion unless it is glowing?
No. I just don’t understand why you use up so much energy into bringing so much negativity to her topic. Do you do this for every celebrity you dislike? Waste five minutes of your time making their fans unhappy? Just wondering.
Cuz hey, if I don’t like them. I move on to the next news topic. No big whoop.
No I don’t thank-you. And as far as who she is as a person, she is probably a nice person. I just don’t think she is talented and obviously you are so emotionally invested with her, you cannot handle that not everyone is going to like her like you.
And it’s no big whoop to me either. I was just responding to your post in which you stated you could not understand my sentiments about her.
Let us just agree to differ in regards to her talent. You think she is, I think she is not.
Look, we can agree to disagree. Because I don’t mind a healthy conversation on why Kat doesn’t appeal to everyone and why you don’t like her. With bitter American Idol fans, I can tell you that I have no problem when it comes to people who don’t like Katharine. So really, you can quit making those obvious assumptions of yours.
You’ve made your point very clear on why you don’t like Katharine. And throughout the rest of the posts in this topic, you’ve been great about explaining why. You have formulated reasons why and your eloquent in your explanations. I don’t have a problem with your opinion, but mainly just with your initial first response. You have to realize that when you start a post with:
“Just as I have always said: she took a spot away from someone else who really wanted to sing just to jump start her modeling acting carreer!
Sorry, she thinks she is all that and a bag of chips, but she is not. And everything is about showing her body, not talent.
But then again, she is just not that talented except to show off her body.”
Those are accusations and you have to understand that there are reasons why ANY fans who hear that about a celebrity they like are going to get defensive. Because really, it’s not like she graduated from American Idol and went straight to acting. She gave music a chance, and it just didn’t work for her.
Ok, I can understand why my first post was upsetting to you.
Thanks makes sense.