Watch Emma Stone on ‘In Search of The Partridge Family’
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” starring It-Girl Emma Stone, comes out May 2. But you know what’s really amazing? The fact that she was almost The New Laurie Partridge, and that she got her start on an “American Idol”-style VH1 singing competition called “In Search of the New Partridge Family” 10 years ago.
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Come on, get happy, and watch one of her performances from that long-forgotten show, of Meredith Brooks’s ’90s empowerment anthem “Bitch.” Please note, Emma (then known as Emily Stone) won the competition.
She wasn’t bad, actually. But she wasn’t amazing, either.
“In Search of The Partridge Family” was a 2004 televised talent hunt to cast VH1’s reboot of the beloved ’70s pop-music sitcom. Original fake Partridges Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, and Danny Bonaduce were involved. French Stewart was tapped to play the role of The New Reuben Kincaid. Singer-songwriter Teddy Geiger was in the running to be The New Keith. (He lost, but ended up back on VH1 in the dramedy “Love Monkey,” and actually reunited with Emma onscreen in the 2008 Rainn Wilson film “The Rocker.” Last year, Teddy co-wrote a track on One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” album, so, like Emma, he obviously went on to a perfectly fine post-“Partridge” career.)
[Related: Pop Stars Who Lost on “Star Search”]
“You go in there rolling your eyes, thinking, ‘This is just a reality search competition,’ but then you’re there for seven weeks, and you just really, really want to win,” Emma told Vogue about the whole experience.
Emma beat out seven other potential Lauries in the finals, but only one episode of the subsequent scripted show “The New Partridge Family” ever aired, in January 2005. So we never got to see Emma wear one of those snazzy burgundy velveteen suits, ride a Mondrian-patterned tour bus, or pick up radio waves on her orthodontia like the original Laurie, Susan Dey, back in the day.
But thanks to the magic of the Internet, we’ll always be able to revisit Emma’s Partridge past. Amazing, indeed.
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