Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images
The end of a TV show can be a very confusing time for a lot of people: viewers who will miss their onscreen friends, networks looking to fill a time slot, and the stars of the show who may have no clue where to turn next. Luckily that’s not a problem for Hacks star Meg Stalter, whose final-season victory-lap press tour has centered around the actor and comedian’s forthcoming … pop-music career?
Stalter first teased her single “Prettiest Girl in America” on Instagram at the end of March, and she’s been steadily hyping up her career pivot ahead of the Hacks finale, appearing on the traditional media circuit, doing pop-ups, and cameoing at Coachella and on DeuxMoi. It’s admittedly hard to tell, in part because her single is very real, whether this is an actual attempt to pivot, or an extended bit, or some unclear combination of the two. Lo and behold, “Prettiest Girl in America” was released on May 1, and it’s very much a real song. Does it also happen to include the lyrics “I’m the prettiest girl in America, but that don’t make me a bitch”? Well, yes, but that’s par for the course with most pop songs these days. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s quite eloquent, even if she’s rhythming “restaurant” with “restaurant” at one point.
But asking “Is this music supposed to be good?” or “Wait, is there seriously going to be a whole album of songs like this?” is neither satisfying nor helpful, especially when it seems like just about everyone — even Zane Lowe — is in on the joke. When it comes to the style of Stalter’s comedy, the best way forward is through. It doesn’t matter if she’s trolling us about her pivot to pop — it matters that she’s being really funny about it no matter what.
When she went on Late Night with Seth Meyers on May 5 to promote her album, she rocked up in an outfit that looked, uh, suspiciously similar to Madonna’s getup at Coachella that went missing after her performance, though she denied the allegations of theft. Talking about the inspiration for her new single, Stalter explained that, “as a songwriter, you kind of write about your life, and I noticed that I was the prettiest girl in America.” She went on to shout out the “400” people who worked on the song (“You had 400 people and you still rhymed ‘restaurant’ with ‘restaurant’?” Meyers asked) and nearly picked a fight with him when she realized that she wasn’t actually invited on the show to sing her new song. Seated across from Meyers, a stellar improviser in his own right who “yes ands” her every escalation, Stalter shines doing the kind of deranged coquette persona she so often inhabits during her press tours.
For all that her fans are championing her new song, not everyone is her biggest supporter. “I did not want her to do it,” her Hacks co-star Paul W. Downs said in an interview with Stalter on Good Morning America. “I said, ‘Please do not do music.’” Downs later specified that he didn’t want her to do music only because it means she’s retiring from acting. Those who want to see Stalter back onscreen, however, may not have to wait long. Toward the end of her conversation with Meyers, Stalter clarified she won’t be acting “unless a role or an audition” comes her way. So if you run across an opportunity to see Stalter perform live — as she did at her look-alike contest — run, don’t walk. Maybe one day the prettiest girl in America will be at the Garden.
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