Scarlett Does Tom Waits

Scarlett Johansson singing for The Pussycat Dolls

Don’t get me wrong — like most of the world, I love Scarlett Johansson. And like some of the world, I love Tom Waits. But like most of the world, while I accept it when someone famous as a singer decides to act (as when Tom Waits does), I usually roll my eyes whenever someone more famous as an actor decides to sing (Bruce Willis, Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, and, more recently and laughably, Jared Leto).

So why Scarlett has chosen to cover Tom Waits songs is anyone’s guess, since it’s usually a no-win situation when an actor decides to cut an album: If they’re very good — and the word is that Scarlett isn’t half bad — they’ll be spared from humiliation, but little more; if they’re not, the album will haunt them forever. Perhaps she’s worried that, having been named Sexiest Woman Alive, she needs to do something to boost her there’s-more-to-me-than-boobs cred. Perhaps her mother/manager is just one of those people who thinks there’s simply nothing her little girl can’t do, that she’s equally talented at everything. Whatever the motivation, my guess is that there’ll be a lot of commotion about the album when it comes out (it’s Scarlett Johansson, after all, the Sexiest Woman Alive), but once the Grand Experiment is over, Scarlett, her mom, and the public will have gotten it out of her system.