Good things come to those who keep at it. Katharine McPhee, the beautiful, 27-year-old runner up of the 5th season of "American Idol," produced three albums, but didn't hit the popularity scale as much as, say, a Jennifer Hudson.
That may soon change with "Smash," the new musical TV series that debuts on NBC in February. One of the executive producers is Steven Spielberg, and appearing on the show, along with McPhee, includes Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston, among others.
If you're a fan of the beautiful singer and actress, test your knowledge with some fun trivia questions.
True or False
1. Steven Spielberg had to be begged to become one of the Executive producers of McPhee's new show "Smash."
2. NBC reports that "Smash" is a make-or-break show for the network.
3. Ms. McPhee was voted one of the most beautiful by People magazine, FHM and AskMen. However, she failed to make Maxim's list.
4. Although the "Unbroken" singer appeared on "American Idol," she had stage and film experience prior to that.
5. The former "American Idol" contestant is in shape, but she's never appeared on the cover of Shape magazine.
6. The beautiful McPhee was eventually dropped from RCA records.
7. On "Unbroken," the "Keep Drivin" singer helped to write at least half of the songs.
8. McPhee once said "Entertainment is such a non-reality."
Answers
1. False - It was the opposite. "I couldn't get anybody else to buy it. Bob stepped forward and took the show for NBC," said Steven Spielberg. "So, I hired myself and my ... two TV partners at DreamWorks Television ... We then hired Theresa Rebeck to really create the show. She wrote a wonderful play called, 'The Understudy.' She had done a lot of writing for theater and I wanted theater. I wanted writers from theater to write about theater."
2. False - NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt says "Smash" is not a make-or-break show for NBC. "We're really proud of it and excited about what it could do ... but you need four to five shows to turn things around" for NBC.
3. False - McPhee was voted No. 47 on Maxim's HOT 100 Women of 2007.
4. True - The "Unbroken" singer appeared in the 2005 film "Crazy," performed on-stage in "Annie Get Your Gun," and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," and appeared in the TV show "You Are Here."
5. False - Katherine appeared with blonde hair on the February 2010 issue of Shape.
6. True - After the singer's debut album failed to reach "gold status," she was dropped. "McPhee is no longer on the label's roster," reported Entertainment Weekly.
Said an RCA spokesperson, "Katharine is going to record her next album on her own, and she also has a film project." McPhee's "UnBroken" is on Verve Forecast Records.
7. True - Said McPhee, "It's very different, I think, just organically from beginning to the end of the process. . . . With the first record, you come off ["Idol''] and it's just like everything is going so fast, and you're not sure what you want to do, and you're not quite sure who all of these people are handling you. With this, I really took time and figured out really where I wanted to go and what I wanted to say, and I wrote about half the record."
8. True - "They wanted me wearing the very short-short dresses and [to] be that sex kitten or whatever because, you know, the Rihannas and the Cassies were really hot at the time ... But I realized through that process it didn't really fit me. I'd much rather be authentic to myself than this machine that doesn't really stay true to you. It wasn't ultimately who I was. The cover of the first record, that was a hair campaign photo shoot ... You live and you learn," said the "Smash" star. "Entertainment is such non-reality."
More from this contributor:
Randy Jackson on American Idol Endures the Ups and Downs
Hottest Celebrity Guys; Who Lights Your Fire?
Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Join the Yahoo! Contributor Network here to start publishing your own articles.
