# Entertainers who "got out of their lane" and failed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies, music\ **Created:** [April 10, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621 "2022-04-10T16:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/61 "2022-04-11T14:57:46Z")
Forgot about those two. For some reason I just recalled “Body of Evidence” and “Who’s that Girl” which were both bombs. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/62 "2022-04-11T15:04:32Z")
Also _Desperately Seeking Susan_ is also rated pretty nicely by the critics. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/63 "2022-04-11T15:06:38Z")
I suspect Madonna left acting to avoid her ex. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/64 "2022-04-11T15:10:27Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > I’m going to nominate Elvis Costello’s and Paul McCartney’s various attempts at “classical” music. (You did say entertainers, not just actors). I believe Sting’s attempt at Dowland lute songs did rather well commercially, but I find it painful to listen to. Just bland dreck. Likewise, opera singers attempting Broadway songs rarely produce beautiful music. Jose Carreras’ rendition of “Memory” from _Cats_ is just dire. > [@solost](#): > > I remember the first episode of Chevy Chase’s talk show. It was painful to watch, he was so out of his element. I saw it, and everything about him screamed “I don’t want to be here”. The thing about his Doritos ad getting cancelled was funny though. > [@solost](#): > > In the same vein, I predict a future failure for Eminem’s restaurant “Mom’s Spaghetti”. A take-out only restaurant, whose existence is completely based on a song lyric, that only serves spaghetti? After the initial curiosity of the gimmick wears off I can’t see it having much staying power. Weirdly, Wahlburgers seems to be doing okay. I’ve not tried it as their London branch didn’t survive the COVID lockdown less than a year after opening. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/65 "2022-04-11T15:23:53Z")
Brian Bosworth ex-NFL who tried to be an action star and didn’t do well. Though was he worse than Howie Long? ---
**Author:** ![Kelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@Kelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/66 "2022-04-11T16:19:51Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > > [@flurb](#): > > > > The number of actors and actresses who’ve tried to launch music careers and failed is legion. > > Eddie Murphy and John Travolta come to mind. Just because you got money and connections doesn’t mean you should attempt to crossover. > > [https://youtu.be/iWa-6g-TbgI](https://youtu.be/iWa-6g-TbgI) > > [https://youtu.be/7H4NRyqEwyY](https://youtu.be/7H4NRyqEwyY) > > It physically hurt to hear those again after 40 years. _shudders_ ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/67 "2022-04-11T17:08:05Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > And Dee Dee Ramone quit The Ramones and put out a rap album, which was abysmal. Abysmal? Come on, how bad could it have been? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rAl-xzN8e-M/hqdefault.jpg "DEE DEE KING "Funky Man"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAl-xzN8e-M) Ooof. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/68 "2022-04-11T17:12:52Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Rick “Don’t Call Me ‘Ricky’” Nelson attempting to break into the country genre. Unlike Pat Boone’s flirtation with metal, Ricky essentially killed his career. He had no albums on the US charts until _Garden Party_ in '72. Well, maybe he failed charts-wise, but definitely not artistically (and I think his ambition for overcoming his teen idol status was rather artistic than financial). He made some great records in the late 60s/early 70s and was a pioneer of country rock (check out his live album “In Concert At The Troubadour” from 1969, it’s wonderful). And this was his problem, the problem of many country rockers: rocking too hard for the country market, and too country for the rock crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/69 "2022-04-11T17:15:41Z")
Artist Yoko Ono has made repeated attempts to produce “[music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfZvHuh7wKM)” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/70 "2022-04-11T17:34:38Z")
Literature Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan’s only novel “Tarantula” is a rambling mess. I’m probably the biggest Dylan fan at this board, but I gave up on “Tarantula” after 10 pages or so, it’s unreadable. It was published (I think in 1968) after having been announced (and written) years before and was already dated when it came out (it’s written in the beat poetry hipster style Dylan cultivated around 1964-66). We all knew that he can write songs, but thirty years later, he proved that he can also write books when publishing his autobiographical “Chronicles Vol. 1”, which is fascinating and generally highly regarded. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/71 "2022-04-11T17:35:11Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Artist Yoko Ono has made repeated attempts to produce “[music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfZvHuh7wKM)” To be fair, she’s an avant-garde conceptual artist; making “performance art” music, that’s decidedly not pop music, is “in her lane,” IMO. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/72 "2022-04-11T18:42:10Z")
Don’t know if this falls too far outside your definition of “got out of their lane”, but Ed Wynn – The Perfect Fool. on radio, the voice of The Mad Hatter in the 1951 Disney version of _Alice in Wonderland_, Uncle Albert in _Mary Poppins_ and the Toymaker in _Babes in Toyland_. He also definitely got 'out of his lane" with heavy dramatic parts in _The Diary of Anne Frank_ and _Requiem for a Heavyweight_, among many others. But he got too far out when he decided to start up his own radio broadcasting network - the Amalgamated Broadcasting System – in 1933. He was taking on the other big players, like CBS and NBC It’s like imagining Jake Gyllenhall trying to start his own TV network today. It lasted only a month. Wynn was trying to juggle being a radio and movie star with being chief executive of a major broadcasting company. It lost money spectacularly, and Wynn felt personally responsible for paying all debts. It cost him his fortune, his shows, his marriage, and he had a breakdown. It took years for him and his career to recover. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/73 "2022-04-11T21:40:17Z")
Gambling problems? The things you miss by not falling sports. I mean, I’ll recognize the big names, but I don’t watch. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/74 "2022-04-11T21:49:15Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Gambling problems? I’d not heard the rumor that @Asuka mentions, and I was living here in the Chicago area during the '90s, when Jordan and the Bulls were huge. But, it was pretty well-known, even back then, that Jordan was, indeed, a big-time gambler. I recall stories, from back then, that when Jordan golfed with other people, he very much wanted to place wagers on the matches, and on each hole. FWIW, Jordan’s Wikipedia article has [an entire section on his gambling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan#Gambling), including these two passages: > [@](#): > > [David Stern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stern), the [commissioner of the NBA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_of_the_NBA), denied in 1995 and 2006 that Jordan’s 1993 retirement was a secret suspension by the league for gambling,[[100]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan#cite_note-vecsey19950319-102)[[101]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan#cite_note-simmons20060227-103) but the rumor spread widely. > [@](#): > > In 2010, [Ron Shelton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Shelton), director of _[Jordan Rides the Bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rides_the_Bus)_ , said that he began working on the documentary believing that the NBA had suspended him, but that research “convinced [him it] was nonsense”. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/75 "2022-04-11T21:55:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I won’t link to Don Johnson’s “Heartbeat” – you’ve suffered too much already. Are you saying we shouldn’t go looking for a heartbeat? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/76 "2022-04-11T22:02:23Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Are you saying we shouldn’t go looking for a heartbeat? Yes, indeed, I am. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/77 "2022-04-11T22:44:43Z")
Ms. Spears says she’s pregnant. > **[Britney Spears announces she's pregnant](https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1092128404/britney-spears-pregnant)** > > The 40-year-old pop star had her 13-year conservatorship terminated late last year. Spears is a mother to two teen boys from an earlier marriage. I posted it here instead of starting a new thread, because I suspect most Dopers aren’t interested in this story any more than I am. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/78 "2022-04-11T22:52:12Z")
Considering she already has two kids I wouldn’t say this is Britney “getting out of her lane.” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/79 "2022-04-11T22:56:26Z")
Grace Kelly. Too soon? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621/80 "2022-04-11T23:30:26Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I posted it here instead of starting a new thread, because I suspect most Dopers aren’t interested in this story any more than I am. Was this supposed to be posted in a different thread? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entertainers-who-got-out-of-their-lane-and-failed/962621.md?page=5)