Well, it took ’til the very end, but the strangest story of the week has just arrived, and that’s in a week when it was revealed that Will Smith was on the Cannes jury, and that Fyre Festival thing. It’s a while since we’ve seen much of Mike Myers: the Canadian superstar comedian’s two main franchises, “Shrek” and “Austin Powers,” lie dormant, and Myers hasn’t actually appeared on screen since his cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” in 2009, although he did direct 2013’s documentary “Supermensch: The Legend Of Shep Gordon.”
But something of a comeback may be on the way: Myers has been talking about a possible fourth “Austin Powers” film this week to mark the film’s 20th anniversary; he’s starring with Margot Robbie and Simon Pegg in crime thriller “Terminal”; and today, Myers sort-of completes a return to the spotlight in the strangest, most Myers-ish possible way. The Hollywood Reporter reveal that Myers will act as the host of the new revival of “The Gong Show” that Will Arnett is producing for ABC.
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Except that…he won’t. But he will. See, technically, the host of the new version of the talent-show favorite, once hosted by the late Chuck Barris, is Tommy Maitland, a 70-something British comedian with a career that takes in everything from ’60s spaghetti Westerns to an Australian game show called “Dingos Got The Baby.” But while some sites, amusingly, are reporting Maitland’s hiring straight from the press release, THR have spilled the beans that Maitland is actually a new Mike Myers character, and that the star will be hosting the show entirely in character and under some make-up.
What does that make-up look like? Feast your eyes on the nightmare fuel over at their site. Myers (who, interestingly, was at one point attached to star in Barris biopic “Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind”) isn’t the only A-lister involved: Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Alison Brie, Andy Samberg, Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale, Dana Carvey, Will Forte, Jack Black and Anthony Anderson will be among special celebrity guest judges. The new show premieres June 22nd; we’ll see how well the joke works then.
