You thought you had seen the last of Miley Cyrus’ temporarily controversial music video for ”Wrecking Ball,” didn’t you? You thought it was out of your life forever, minus a random sighting while late-night flipping past VH1. But here it is again on Spike’s Lip Sync Battle, with Anne Hathaway taking it to extremes. Check it out!
Hathaway certainly deserves a round of awkward applause for going the full nine yards with this version of “Wrecking Ball,” exuding emotions from every flick of her all-white fingernails. She shows off everything from her glittery legs to her skills at leaping onto a fake wrecking ball hanging from the ceiling. (Not something you can put on a resume, but certainly helpful in these very specific situations.)
I like to think that the bird-flipping motion below wasn’t just Anne Hathaway imitating Cyrus’ signature middle finger, but a sly jab at her most persistent haters, who presumably won’t be won over by this performance.
“Wrecking Ball” was instantly a massive hit when it came out in August 2013, and was at the center of one parody after another in the months following the music video’s arrival. Betty White’s version was particularly memorable, but I dare say Hathaway’s version (while not exactly a spoof) is the best of them all. I can’t wait to see where her opponent and The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt takes her performance. Maybe Madonna’s “Like a Prayer?” Oh wait, Jimmy Fallon already handled that so very uncomfortably in the series premiere last week.
Fallon is the guy we can all thank for bringing lip syncing back to the forefront of pop culture – remember the 20-year-old Lip Service? – as The Tonight Show has been home to small-scale versions of these performances for months. He ended up losing in that first episode to Dwayne Johnson, who pulled out two masterful performances of Taylor Swift’s ”Shake It Off” and the Bee Gees’ ”Stayin’ Alive,” the latter of which made it abundantly obvious that Johnson needs to add a disco movie to his growing resume.
Lip Sync Battle, hosted by LL Cool J, will return to Spike for more musical shenanigans on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. You can check out the first two episodes in full here.
