Theatre

It’s a well known trick to get people to watch television programmes, head off to the movies or go to the theatre. It’s stunt casting.

You take a regular role, hire a celebrity for that role, and more people are likely to fork out the necessary cash to watch your production. It would certainly explain why my last two trips to the theatre were to see A Few Good Men with Rob Lowe and Patrick Stewart’s one-man version of A Christmas Carol.

But heading back from a trip out this weekend, I noticed that Kelly Osbourne has signed up to play the new Mama Morton in Chicago. Chicago has never been averse to a bit of stunt casting: we’ve had David Hasselhoff, Denise van Outen and a load of other celebs take a turn in various roles. However, the celebs have almost always been actors of some variety or other.

But Kelly Osbourne – an actor she is not. Although I’ve never been particularly interested in seeing Chicago, the thought of Kelly Osbourne in it has put me off it even more.

So the question is, is it just me or would most people actually like to see Kelly Osbourne in Chicago (assuming they had the time, money, proximity, etc)? And is there a piece of stunt casting that you can think of that has actually put you and everyone you know off from going to see or watching something?