Why Am I Crying Over Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ Duet?

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.

This week:

• Put an end to these Disney disasters!

• Somehow crying along to the Kelly/Dolly duet.

• The toughest Emmy categories.

• The two Queen-related posts that broke me.

• The celebrity who won the week.

Kelly and Dolly, Be Still My Heart

There are two eras of my life. There’s the one before Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton released a slowed-down, shockingly emotional duet update of “9 to 5;” and there’s the period after. Now, I’m a changed, enlightened person—a heightened version of myself. I see clearer. My heart beats stronger. I no longer say “you too” when a waiter says “enjoy your meal.”

Like the recent Britney Spears and Elton John duet, “Hold Me Closer,” this is an entirely new, modern arrangement of a familiar song. But unlike the obvious dance-ready remix of the Britney-Elton collab, this one replaces Parton’s famous fingernail-typewriter effect that gave the songs its adrenaline with a melancholic swirl and a thumping, dramatic beat. All these decades later, this take on “9 to 5” more accurately reflects what going to work feels like today: It makes you want to cry.

Kelly Clarkson fans were already soaring this week before she dropped this triumph. It’s the 20th anniversary of when she won American Idol. Her daytime talk show is about to premiere in Ellen’s old time slot. She announced a new album and tour. There are plenty of pop stars worth stanning. but Kelly never falters. She’s the first elected official of my lifetime to serve her constituents flawlessly.

The Two Toughest Emmy Categories

The Emmy Awards are on Monday night. There are a handful of things I’m really rooting for: Melanie Lynskey to win for Yellowjackets; Jennifer Coolidge to deliver the Emmy speech we’ve all been waiting to hear for The White Lotus; Abbott Elementary to collect a truckload of trophies.

But there are two categories in which, if I were an Emmy voter, it would be impossible for me to choose a winner.

There’s Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The nominees are: Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Kaley Cuoco (The Flight Attendant), Elle Fanning (The Great), Issa Rae (Insecure), and Jean Smart (Hacks). That is a stacked list. There are sentimental favorites and people who have already gotten their due. But this is a category in which every nominee gave a performance that should win. So how do you pick between them? My choice is different every time I look at this list.

Even with conventional wisdom saying it’s a race between Brunson and Smart, I don’t know how that shakes out.

Then there’s Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. It’s not that every nominee here is win-deserving, like in Lead Actress. It’s that half of them are, and, again, I have no clue how to decide between them. Can one really pick a victor between Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph for Abbott Elementary? Did anyone do better work than Hannah Einbinder in the finale of Hacks? Is it possible to match the force that is Hannah Waddingham in Ted Lasso?

I have every confidence in Emmy voters to make the most boneheaded choices and not award any of those four women. But this is the rare year where I’m really eager to see how things shake out.

The Queen’s Death Was a Twitter Nightmare

The death of the Queen surfaced charged feelings, the nuances of which I would never presume to weigh-in on.

Social media is a wild west after events like these, with a crossfire of cringe-inducing takes from people centering news on themselves, random brands posting embarrassing remembrances, and, of course, gallows humor. (I don’t necessarily support off-color jokes about a person’s death, but I am also human and can’t help but laugh at them.)

That said, there were two posts that broke me. The first cracked me open with laughter. As my newsfeed filled up with screenshots of solemn tweets from brands that have no business tweeting about the Queen, I saw this.

And then there’s this one. I saw it minutes after I heard the news about the death. Reader, I cried.

Kate Berlant Stays Flawless

Popular comedian and actress Kate Berlant is winning this week. She has managed to escape all of the drama surrounding her new movie, Don’t Worry Darling, and she opened her new play, a one-woman show called Kate, that might be one of the most sensational pieces of theater I’ve ever seen. It is so smart, inventive, and hilarious, and it will make you cry in a way that is totally confusing, catch you by surprise, yet feel so cathartic. I’d say go see it immediately, but I don’t think you can actually get a ticket; the response has been so enthusiastic. So instead, I get to gloat that I’ve seen it :)

What to watch this week:

American Gigolo: It’s sexy as hell. (Sun. on Showtime)

Atlanta: The final season of one of modern TV’s greatest shows. (Thurs. on FX)

Barbarian: A great new horror film for all of you who willingly see those. (Now in in theaters)

What to skip this week:

Monarch: A bafflingly terrible new show. Susan Sarandon, what are you doing? (Sun. on Fox)

Pinocchio: An abomination. (Now on Disney+)

Gutsy: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s road trip series is shallow and predictable. (Now on Apple TV+)

This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.

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