If you haven't seen the Old Spice and Bud Light ads, or the Sports Illustrated photo shoot with Heidi Klum, you might not know that Will Ferrell has a new movie coming out. It's called Semi-Pro, and it's about a fictional ABA team called the Flint Tropics. It's set in 1976, which explains the short shorts and the high hair.
I interviewed Ferrell last week in State College, where he was making merry with the Funny or Die? tour. (That story will be in the Inquirer next week.) In the movie - which features Patti LaBelle in a crucial cameo - Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the Tropics' owner, coach, power forward, head of promotions, and part time funk-soul man. In the latter capacity, the man who brought cowbell player extraordinaire Gene Frenkle to life on the Saturday Night Live recreation of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper" gets his musical jollies again. This time, he's doing his let's-get-busy-in-a-bathtub-full-of-sweat routine on "Love Me Sexy," with the help of Chic's Nile Rodgers, who produced.
"I always try to sing the best I can," Ferrell told me before he put on a pair of Capezio pants and Uggs to belt out Alicia Key's "No One" at the Funny or Die show. "But it's funny, people either come up to me and say, "God, you actually sing really well,' or, 'Oh God, I love that song, because you're such a bad singer.'" You be the judge.
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