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Somethin' Stupid
Robbie Williams ft. Nicole Kidman
Swing When You're Winning
2001

The video for "Somethin' Stupid" is the definition of "camp".  Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman star as "Robbie" and "Nicole"--a glamorous, dreamy-eyed, obviously smitten couple.  The set of this three minute mini movie looks like a set. In one scene, Robbie and Nicole exchange gifts (wool sweater, riding crop, diamond-encrusted heart-shaped clutch)  under a tall, white, plastic Christmas tree.  They ogle each other in a bar and twirl across their shag-carpeted living room. Everything is soft focus, pastel, artificial perfection.

I start with the video because the video came first.  Sprawled on the couch one night when I was still living at my mom's, I stopped channel surfing when I saw those blue eyes (Nicole's), that pretty waved hair (also, um, Nicole's), that tinge of Spanish guitar (probably not Robbie, I'm guessing).  I have to admit that I was kind of entranced (maybe it was that final scene--Nicole puts the above-mentioned heart clutch to interesting (and, ahem, apparently memorable) use).  I think that the best "camp" also charms.  Charm is the quality that draws you in--despite the fact that you are well aware that what you are seeing or listening to is pretty terrible.  So, despite the fact that I kind of hated it, when I next found myself on Napster, I downloaded "Somethin' Stupid" and hastily burned it to CD.  I listened to "Somethin' Stupid" gleefully.  I remember walking through the train station one night after a long shift at Indigo, listening to this song as I rushed to catch the bus back to the South Shore--smiling to myself as if I were carrying a wonderful little secret.