I think I have a growing affection for Nicole Scherzinger. I feel very conflicted about this. I find the Pussycat Dolls insufferably irritating and tacky. I wish she would do something better with her career. It's rare that I feel any sort of need to defend my affections for participants in our mass culture, or that I feel any real sour distaste for those I don't like, but Scherzinger's always been an exception because I felt like so much of what she was doing was such a waste. But then, perhaps she's on the way to improvement. First, I thought she was completely, completely adorable on Dancing With the Stars, both in her level of commitment and execution:
And she's really not a bad Maureen in the live production of Rent:
More could have been done with the choreography here, but that inner-thigh-reach-and-slide is nicely executed, and she sounds good. I hope folks keep her working. I don't really know how one makes the step up from manufactured-band mediocrity to the real thing, but maybe they could get her a job on Glee, or something?