As we noted earlier this year, Aimee Mann—like the members of the Cars, a onetime Bostonian—turned in an arrestingly spare version of “Drive” for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, giving the song a poignancy and directness only suggested by the original.
The music gods are off to a good start for 2018. Aimee Mann wins a Grammy. The Cars get voted into the Rock Hall of Fame. And, combining the two, Mann has covered one of the Cars’ biggest hits: “Drive.”
The Cars recorded “Drive” for 1984’s Heartbeat City, the Mutt Lange-produced album that marked the height of the band’s commercial success. “Drive” is a beautiful soft-rock ballad that was accompanied by a heavy rotation MTV video. Remember Paulina Porizkova crying while marking on the wall?
Mann recorded her cover for the television series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (she also appears in an episode performing “Drive” in a bar). Mann has covered other songs before for tributes or a movie, and most of those efforts only get traction with her loyal fan base. Her take on Three Dog Night’s “One” (a cover of a cover) has broken out wider; she still performs it often on tour.
So what would you expect from a singer-songwriter that covers a dreamy synth song from the 1980s? An acoustic guitar ballad? Ding, ding, ding. Aimee’s stripped-down playing and her unique voice accentuate the melancholy in “Drive.” This simple music plays to Aimee’s strength, and she does not disappoint. The Cars’ original version holds up today 34 years later, so there is a slim chance of improving this classic with a poppy overproduced version; thankfully she went in a different direction.
Give Aimee Mann’s acoustic cover of “Drive” a listen and sing along like you just lost your true love at the school dance.
There was another nine-part US television series about the murder of your brother called The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, released in January of this year. You are played by Penélope Cruz. Does time heal all wounds, or does it make wounds of Achilles heels? I still get as angry as I did on the first day when people want to make money with lies about Gianni. My lawyers tried to file a lawsuit against this television series, but they lost because my brother is a person of contemporary history and therefore has limited personal rights. Around 25 books came out after his murder, each with a different theory about the perpetrator’s motive. The wildest speculation was that it was a mafia contract killing. We were in countless trials, but no sooner had we won a case than another book came out. It was hopeless. Why does this TV series about my brother have to come now? The murder was 20 years ago. Can’t people leave Gianni alone?
You could have called Penélope Cruz and … Penélope called and told me about the project. She said that she has great respect for me, so I should write her if there are untrue things in the script.
The script is based on the 1999 non-fiction book Vulgar Favors by American journalist Maureen Orth. I had not heard of the book until last year. After reading it, I sent a list of factual mistakes to the production company working on the TV series. They replied that they were filming the book by Maureen Orth, so they could not take my findings into account. Viewers should know that the series is fiction, not a documentary.
During the gamelet Livin La Vida Versace, actor and singer Ricky Martin answers Andy Cohen’s questions about his role in “American Crime Story Versace” including if he manscaped for the part. | 9 April 2018
Riz Ahmed made history in 2017 by becoming the first man of Asian descent to win a Primetime Emmy for acting. The British-Pakistani performer won Best Movie/Mini Actor for his role in the crime drama “The Night Of.” That also made him the first Asian actor, male or female, to win for a leading role. This year Asian actors may break through again in leading categories as Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”) enters the conversation for Best Drama Actress and Darren Criss (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace“) jockeys for position in the same category Ahmed just won.
The only other Asian actor to win an Emmy besides Ahmed was Archie Panjabi, who is of Indian descent. She won Best Drama Supporting Actress for “The Good Wife” in 2010. However, one may also count Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actress winner in 2009 for “The House of Saddam.” Middle Eastern countries are not always considered ethnically Asian even though Iran is on the Asian continent.
Oh is Korean-Canadian, and this year she could contend for her leading role as Eve Polastri, an MI5 agent hunting down a psychopathic assassin in AMC’s “Killing Eve.” This would be her first Emmy recognition for a leading role, but she’s no stranger to the television academy. She earned five straight nominations for Best Drama Supporting Actress (2005-2009) for playing Dr. Cristina Yang in the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” She also won a Golden Globe for that role in 2006, as well as two SAG Awards: for her individual performance in 2006 and as a member of the ensemble cast in 2007. But she never picked up a win from the TV academy.
Criss previously earned one Emmy nomination for songwriting — for “This Time” from the “Glee” episode “Dreams Come True” in 2015 — but he has yet to contend for acting. Though that’s likely to change this year, according to the combined predictions of more than 1,200 Gold Derby users, who consider him the front-runner to win Best Movie/Mini Actor with leading odds of 7/2. In “Versace” he plays real-life serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who was half-Filipino, as Criss is.
Oh and Criss aren’t the only Asian actors who could win lead-acting Emmys this year. Constance Wu and Randall Park could win Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Actor, respectively, for playing the parents of a Taiwanese immigrant family in “Fresh Off the Boat.” But that series has been eligible for the last three years and has yet to be nominated for Emmys despite two Television Critics Association noms for Wu and multiple Critics’ Choice noms for both Wu and Park.
Including actors who descend from the Asian Middle East, first-time Best Comedy Actress contender Yara Shahidi, who spun-off her “Black-ish” character Zoey Johnson into the Freeform college comedy “Grown-ish,” is half-Iranian. And Alia Shawkat, aiming for her first Comedy Actress bid on her second try for TBS’s “Search Party,” is half-Iraqi.
Do you think this will be another breakthrough year for Asian actors at the Emmys?
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