All is apparently forgiven at Saturday Night Live, as Ashlee Simpson will return to that show later this month as the musical guest. Although, really, I think if you violate the whole "live" concept of the show, you shouldn't get a second chance.
Of course, her return will generate a spike in viewership just to see what happens. Prediction: she'll sing a couple of songs from her new album. Badly. Other than that, nothing. Kind of sad, really. I'd have to think there are hundreds of musical acts who should get a shot at actually performing before Simpson gets a second bite at displaying her atonality.
It's also kind of sad to think that Lorne Michaels has sold out so much, but if the steady string of pointless SNL-inspired movies wasn't enough to prove it, nothing is.
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From what I've read, Lorne has had little to no input on the musical guests for the last 5-7 years or so. Hence the increased dependence on flavors of the month and what's big on the Top 40 chart.
The lack of Lorne input is also what led to the Ashlee Simpson debacle. When ABBA lipsynched on SNL in the 70s, Lorne had a fit and issued a lipsync ban for musical guests -- a policy that was followed by Jean Doumanian, Dick Ebersol and Lorne (85-98).
I remember reading Lorne warning the Spice Girls, when they appeared in 1997, that they better sing live or else (IIRC, there were allegations that the Girls were Britain's answer to Milli Vanilli, if you get my drift). And the Girls delivered what was believed to be their first live musical performance.
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