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PIX: How Music's Most Wanted Gals Fared on Screen
In the brand new explosion-filled summer release Battleship -- 'based' on the classic board game, believe it or not -- pop superstar Rihanna makes her acting debut.
Here's a look at her and other pop performers who've tried their hand at becoming actresses, with mixed results.
Also, this list is looking at the most recent pop lot, and not singer-turned-actress icons like Cher, Madonna and Whitney Houston. Let's see what the most wanted women in music did on the screen.
Rihanna -- Battleship
In Peter Berg's high-adrenaline release, Ri-Ri lines up alongside Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard and Taylor Kitsch.
Rihanna plays Cora Raikes, a sailor and petty officer on board the ship. Fans of her videos will be gratified to know her clothes are immensely snug.
Katy Perry -- Part Of Me
Pneumatic songstress Perry has decided to release a film documenting her life, and she's doing it in 3D.
The euphemistically titled Part Of Me is coming up, but Perry's seen theatrical release before.
She voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs last year. Also, How I Met Your Mother fans might remember her as the wonderfully vacant Honey, cameoing on the show last year.
Taylor Swift -- Valentine's Day
In Garry Marshall's highly populated 2010 release, talented young Taylor was crammed into a massive cast.
Paired opposite Taylor Lautner, Swift played the sweet and virginal Felicia Miller.
Made on a $52 million budget, the film went on to gross $216 million worldwide, even though critics ripped it apart mercilessly, most calling it episodic and cliched.
Christina Aguilera -- Burlesque
In Steven Antin's 2010 musical, Aguilera played Ali Rose, a waitress who dreams of becoming a singer.
Cher also starred and the film's soundtrack, for which Aguilera sang 10 songs, was well-received.
The film itself didn't do as well, though a majority of critics were surprised by Aguilera acting far better than expected.
Fergie -- Nine
While she plays a prostitute in the ludicrous Nine released a couple of years ago, Fergie's first film, Monster In The Closet is a lot more, um, entertaining.
A highly self-mocking horror comedy, this B-movie thriller features the Black Eyed Peas' singer screaming amid such schlocky legends as John Carradine and Howard Duff.
Jessica Simpson -- The Dukes Of Hazzard
Not everyone can fit into the role of a girl best known for her denim hotpants.
Jessica Simpson, however, did it with immense aplomb and her Daisy Duke might have been the best, er, part of this flat and uninspired Jay Chandrasekhar film.
The film received incredibly negative reviews, and the prequel for the film went directly to video.
Beyonce -- Dreamgirls
Beyonce Knowles scorched up the screen with her part as Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers: Goldmember, and was appreciably hot in that horrid Pink Panther retread with Steve Martin.
But the striking singer truly showed her chops off in Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, a musical essentially based on Motown act The Supremes.
Beyonce's role was based on Diana Ross, and she pretty much knocked it out of the park.
Jennifer Hudson -- Dreamgirls
The real success story in Dreamgirls, however, was that of Jennifer Hudson, the rotund American Idol finalist who sang her lungs out in the film and delivered a melodramatic role with significant enough conviction to win herself an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Hudson has since lost 80 pounds, and looks nothing like her memorable character, Effie White.
Britney Spears -- Crossroads
A road film about three girls, this Britney Spears vanity project turned out to be just that: a pointless film strictly for Britney fans, and a project made in vain.
Spears was cloyingly sincere but the Tamra Davis film was a uniformly unwatchable one, and marked the beginning of Britney's gradual slide from the top.
The Spice Girls -- Spice World
Trying perhaps to replicate the phenomenal absurdity of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, this Bob Spiers disaster takes the best known group in the world and gives them something impossible to take seriously.
The film, where the play themselves, is loony enough but Scary, Baby and gang aren't quite John, Paul, George and Ringo.
In fact, they're a bunch of talentless girls in spotlight too big for them, and the colossal failure of this film made chastened listeners stop buying their CDs.
It ended them, honestly.