In our celebrity drenched culture, the celebrities become the princes and princesses that once ruled our imaginations. The fantasy of living happily every after with a celebrity is surprisingly on the minds of many.
In Win a Date With Tad Hamilton (2004), Rosalee is a young lady from small town America. Like many fans, she is hopelessly in love with the latest Hollywood hottie, Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel). Rosalee is the lucky winner of the Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. Her win is to the chagrin of her best friend, Pete (Topher Grace), who is secretly in love with Rosalee. The contest was dreamed by Tad’s management to clean up his reputation. When Tad begins to like real world and Rosalee, his management team and Pete begin to question if the contest was a good idea in the first place.
This movie is a good example of “be careful for what you wish for”. While it has certain predictable elements of character and story, there are elements that make it stand out from the standard rom-com.
A predecessor of Win A Date With Tad Hamilton is Bye Bye Birdie. Premiering on Broadway in 1958, it was made into a movie in 1963 and brought to TV audiences in the form of a TV movie in 1995.
Conrad Birdie (Marc Kurdisch) is an Elvis Presley like singer who is about to be shipped off to the army. In an effort to boost his popularity, his manager Albert J. Peterson (Jason Alexander) comes up the idea of choosing a young lady to accompany him at this final concert. The lucky young lady is Kim McAfee (Chynna Phillips). But her boyfriend and her parents are not thrilled with the idea.
Bye Bye Birdie is a classic among musicals. But unfortunately, it is one of those musicals, that despite certain timeless themes, feels very dated.
Do I recommend them? Maybe, depending on your taste.
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