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Horne and Corden: is this the end?
Topic Started: Apr 1 2009, 01:36 PM (221 Views)
Riverwide
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/apr/01/horne-corden-career-advice

How can Mathew Horne and James Corden recover their nosediving careers?
Mark Lawson has some suggestions

There is a convention in showbusiness journalism that says acts who are performing for charity are treated more kindly than if they were performing for profit: even Jonathan Ross's most severe critics were relatively generous about his recent fronting of Comic Relief. But this rule seems to have been suspended for James Corden and Mathew Horne, who have received a string of stinkers (including a one-star review in yesterday's Guardian) for the sketches they performed at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

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This week's reviews are the latest instalment in one of the steepest and quickest falls from grace in showbiz history. Until a few months ago, the biggest problems the 30-year-old friends had was finding a shelf big enough to hold the awards for their sitcom, Gavin & Stacey. Since then, they have followed a universally slated movie, Lesbian Vampire Killers, with a generally hated TV sketch show, flopped as presenters at the Brits in February, and now can't even get a laugh for sick children.

The causes of this fall are the most familiar snakes on the ladder: overexposure and overconfidence. Performers, knowing that careers can be brief, seize work when it's there, but Corden and Horne have made the mistake of moving too far from the circumstances of their breakthrough work. In Gavin & Stacey they performed words written by Corden with Ruth Jones; for their BBC3 sketches, Jones was replaced by Horne, while their film was scripted by two inexperienced writers, Paul Hupfield and Stewart Williams. The moral seems to be that they need Jones.

Another factor in the backlash is clearly a perception that Corden, in particular, has not taken well to sudden celebrity. Accepting the second of two Baftas for Gavin & Stacey on the same night last year, he seemed to express resentment at not also having been considered in a third category. The actor has since tried to explain that he was wryly commenting on the illogicality of prize ceremonies; nonetheless he created an impression of arrogance, for which some of his bad press is a punishment.

At least the pair have the comfort of knowing that other comedians have gone from toast-of-the-town to toast and recovered. Ricky Gervais was written off by many critics after a bad Live Earth charity gig, but went on to make a hit movie, Ghost Town.

So how might Horne and Corden recover? The first strategy a Max Clifford might suggest - doing something for charity, possibly involving kids with cancer - has already failed. Another tactic often recommended to public figures in trouble, a spell of quiet isolation, is risky for showbiz casualties: absence from the headlines is a mark of disaster.

The best approach for them is the mantra often quoted by businesses: maximise your assets. In their case, this would mean concentrating on Gavin & Stacey: creating another series and a couple of specials so impeccable that these recent blips will be bracketed by new awards. Of course, this creates its own problems by inviting critics to conclude that the project that made them famous is the only thing they can do well (see the eagerness of Sacha Baron Cohen and Steve Coogan to escape from Ali G and Alan Partridge). Also, the revisionism the duo has suffered has been so severe that the reviews for series three of Gavin & Stacey wouldn't fail to point out that this hit had been overvalued.

What would a spin doctor advise? That they should seek their salvation through theatre. Although many of Corden's fans think his career began in TV, he had achieved substantial theatrical success, in particular in Alan Bennett's The History Boys. Horne has also recently pleased large audiences (and some reviewers) in a London revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane. The smart move might be pairing them under a strong director with a script of proven quality. When I interviewed them recently, they expressed an interest in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which would suit a physically and vocally contrasting double act.

As it happens, that play contains a scene in which an actor outlines his company's recent projects. "Is that what people want?" he is asked. "It's what we do," he replies. For Corden and Horne, that answer may no longer be an option. They badly need to start doing something that people like.
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TickTock
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That's harsh.

I've spoken to Mat briefly. Nice guy. Blind in one eye. lol.

They really were always on the edge of being totally irrelevant. I think people gave them a try, but they, in reality, offered very little.
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TickTock
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BTW, James needs to lose some fucking weight! Geezus christ. That shit isn't even funny, and you know he tries to use it as a laugh.
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Riverwide
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Yep, I've never really seen the appeal. "Gavin & Stacey" is so overrated.
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Jimmy Mack
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Riverwide
Apr 1 2009, 02:05 PM
"Gavin & Stacey" is so overrated.
Lies. But Corden comes across as a fat cock. That said, this beating they're getting is a bit out of all proportion. Did anyone really expect their sketch show to be anything other than drivel, or a film called "Lesbian Vampire Killers" to be anything other than infantile nonsense?

As much as I think Corden needed taking down forty pegs, I think they both are quite talented performers and will recover from this.

(The first person to try the "creative" quoting trick, and recast the above as "But Corden has a fat cock so I forgive him" gets a sound trashing.)
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johnnox
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Gavin and Stacey is a lovely, sweet little comedy.

Everything else they have done since is shockingly poor. I cant remember the last time a backlash appeared as quickly as this one against a celeb or celebs.
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johnnox
Apr 1 2009, 04:01 PM
Everything else they have done since is shockingly poor. I cant remember the last time a backlash appeared as quickly as this one against a celeb or celebs.
Why do think that is? I mean people have followed up a hit with bad stuff before.

Do you think a lot of it has to do with Corden's perceived attitude?
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Riverwide
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I definitely think it's all down to Corden. And as Johnno says, the fact that every single thing they've done outside of G&S has been *woeful*.
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TickTock
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To accumulated that amount of flops so early in their careers, is actually pretty bad. Most don't recover. It's too much, too soon.
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