Michael Klein
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 2003
Justin Guarini is deep in the media blitz for his first CD.
NEW YORK - There's a knock on the hotel door, and through the peephole is visible a tall, skinny guy in a black ski cap - which would be a tad odd this time of year except that Justin Guarini rarely goes anywhere, even from his suite to his publicist's room, bare-headed.
It's the hair. It's Guarini's blessing and his curse.
Last summer, when Guarini was singing his way into the finals on Fox's inaugural American Idol, you couldn't open a magazine or turn on a TV without running into those springy curls. The hair - which its owner says "has its own ecosystem" - was a crowd magnet.
The hair is about to be everywhere again. Guarini, the onetime bar mitzvah singer and door-to-door security-system salesman from Doylestown, will enjoy more spoils of his Idol fame today with the release of his eponymously titled CD. His full-length CD debut will be marked by a media blitz that includes a live appearance this afternoon on Oprah; an interview tomorrow on Good Morning America; a co-hosting stint Thursday on Live With Regis and Kelly; a Friday invitation-only hometown screening of From Justin to Kelly, his new movie with Idol winner Kelly Clarkson; and a Saturday afternoon CD-signing at the Wal-Mart in Warminster.
"Cranking up the machine" is how Guarini describes his mission this week.
If someone had told him a year ago where he would be now - which, at the moment, is stretched out on the hotel bed, his hat at his side - "I wouldn't have believed them," Guarini, 24, says.
But where is he, really? Is all the slick Idol packaging paving the way to superstardom or just laying groundwork for the inevitable VH1 "whatever happened to" special?
The answer is riding on the sales of Guarini's CD and the receipts for From Justin to Kelly, which will open June 20. (The movie, a beach musical, will not be made available to critics, a sure sign it won't be on anyone's lips come Oscar time.) Clarkson, who as Idol winner got the first CD into stores, got a solid start in April when Thankful entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 1. The CD has sold more than a million copies, and is still ranked number four.
Guarini hopes his hard work will pay off. After the Idol finale Sept. 4, he was signed to a management contract by the show's executive producer, Simon Fuller, of 19 Entertainment. Guarini left in early October for a concert tour with the 10 Idol finalists that wrapped in late November.
Shortly after New Year's, he and Clarkson froze on a Florida beach to make From Justin to Kelly. It's "a romantic comedy with a musical twist - a lot of fun for the kids," he says, adding: "If you're looking for Doctor Zhivago, you're going to be disappointed."
After the breakneck 30-day shoot, Guarini flew to Los Angeles to record his CD, which has 13 songs, including a duet with Clarkson. He is expected to start shooting the album's first video, for "Sorry," within weeks.
"I don't mind not having a life," he says. "What an experience! The learning curve is so sharp, and I had to absorb so much."
While he's been singing for years, the making of the CD immersed him in the production side. He worked with producer-songwriters Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Carole Bayer Sager, and Lester Mendez.
"My goal is really to be a jack-of-all-trades and master all I can," says Guarini, who has already mastered the art of the sound bite. "All this work is going to lead me to a life of relaxation. Critics are quick to knock you down. I want to work hard to please my fans and get new ones. Fame? That's just a word. It's what you make of it. Friends and family are what's important."
Guarini's friends and family say he's changed little since February 2002, when he stood in line in Manhattan for his first Idol audition.
He has been home four times since May 2002. His mother, Kathy, a real estate agent, says she sometimes stands in his bedroom and tries to comprehend the notion that her son has left the nest. Her husband, Jerry, a retired Navy physicist, answers his stepson's fan mail.
"My home's in a plane, a hotel room and a car," Guarini says. Recently, he has been staying with a friend in Los Angeles, an influential music-industry figure he declined to name. His sense of humor is still intact. When someone warned him not to register under the name "Guarini," he chose "Oliver Closeoff" as his nom du hôtel.
Guarini, who says he has been too busy working to pursue romance, stays close with his friends, many of whom sang with him at Central Bucks East High School in the a cappella group Midnight Voices. After the Idol tour, he flew back home and hired a limo to attend the Christmas party of Cutting Edge Entertainment, the Huntingdon Valley mobile-entertainment company where he worked for more than a year, singing and dancing at weddings and bar mitzvahs. (Cutting Edge president Craig Sumsky says entertainers now seek him out, in the belief that it's a good training ground.)
Guarini enjoyed a rare idle moment during his last visit, over Memorial Day weekend. "It was strange having nothing to do," he says.
"All he wanted to do was sit in the house and play video games," his mother says. When he did venture out, he pulled on a ski cap, and joined friends in any arcade or bar that had a Golden Tee golf video game.
Guarini seems to be watching his money. In the hotel room, he picked up a bottle of Evian water. Told that he would be charged $12 if it were opened, he quickly put it down. He did treat himself to a solo trip to Hawaii after filming ended in January. He also got his ears pierced; his mother says he has promised to let her borrow his diamond studs.
But he can't skimp on clothes. At photo shoots for seven different New York-based teen magazines in two days, he couldn't be photographed in the same outfit twice, and had to go shopping. It's a perk shared by Guarini's friends, who find shirts and slacks in their mailboxes.
The interview over, Guarini and his publicist take the elevator to get a cab on Park Avenue. On the way down, he stuffs his hair into his hat.