Miss Piggy makes her comeback with “The Muppets”; performs with Vince Gill on Thursday’s “CMA Country Christmas”
Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog appear in a scene from their new movie "The Muppets."
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Miss Piggy makes her comeback with “The Muppets”
The porcine prima donna not only stars in the new movie, she also has been busily promoting the film on “Saturday Night Live,” in InStyle Magazine and on Thursday’s “CMA Country Christmas” concert special, during which she will do a duet with Vince Gill.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — An invitation to spend the holidays with three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams is nothing at which to turn up one’s nose, even if one’s nose happens to be a rather prominent snout.
But Miss Piggy graciously declined her co-star’s invite, citing her inhumanly busy schedule.
“Oh, I would, dear, but I have to work. I have to keep promoting this thing. I’m sure I’m gonna be on a plane eating plane food,” Miss Piggy said during a recent press conference in the famed ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The porcine prima donna, her beau Kermit the Frog and the rest of their comically inclined felt friends are making their comeback with their new movie “The Muppets,” their first cinematic outing since 1999’s “Muppets from Space.” Co-starring Adams and Jason Segel, “The Muppets” earned stellar reviews and $42 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. making it No. 2 on the domestic box-office charts behind only the supernatural juggernaut “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.”
For a diva whom many undoubtedly believed was in the twilight of her long career, Miss Piggy indeed has become a promotional force, during the past few weeks, singing on “Saturday Night Live” with Segel and the rest of the Muppets, gabbing with Checotah native Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley during the 45th Annual Country Music Association Awards and appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” alongside a rather grabby Mickey Rourke.
“Yeah, I think he was a little friendly, I understand,” said Kermit the Frog, who appeared at the press conference alongside Miss Piggy, Segel, Adams and new Muppet Walter.
Miss Piggy and Vince Gill perform "Baby, It's Cold Outside" during taping of the "CMA Country Christmas" concert special Nov. 10 at Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville, Tenn. "CMA Country Christmas" will air at 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC. (Photo by Donn Jones, Country Music Association)
On Thursday, Miss Piggy and Oklahoma-born and bred country music superstar Vince Gill will perform a duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” during the “CMA Country Christmas” concert special, airing at 8 p.m. on ABC.
The superstar swine also did a special photo shoot for November’s InStyle Magazine that featured her wearing custom pieces by six designers, including Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu and Brian Atwood.
“Well, I just want to say I am sorry. “I am sorry about that spread in InStyle. I’m sorry to all the ladies who’ve lost their beaus, their husbands, to moi because people just instantly fall in love with moi when they see me in that spread,” And I just want to apologize,” Miss Piggy said.
The chic spread suits Miss Piggy’s role in “The Muppets.” In the new film, the Muppets reunite — with the help of their devoted fans Gary (Segel), Mary (Adams) and Walter — to raise $10 million to save their old Muppets Studios from the nefarious schemes of evil oil baron Tex Richman (Oscar winner Chris Cooper), who wants to raze the theater and drill for oil under it.
Recruiting Miss Piggy for their fundraising show proves the trickiest task, not only because she and Kermit have such a complicated history but also because she has a tony job as plus-size editor of Vogue Paris, complete with haute couture wardrobe and Emily Blunt (“The Devil Wears Prada”) as her personal secretary.
For the film, Miss Piggy donned a Zac Posen-designed lavender gown, glittery platform stiletto heels from Christian Louboutin and a jacket made of cashmere that cost $300 a yard.
But she didn’t get to strut her stuff in Paris.
“I would’ve loved to have lived in Paris for awhile while shooting this movie, but unfortunately we shot everything on a Hollywood back lot. Except for the car shots; I think they actually took a car to Paris, but they did not take moi,” she said, referring to the film’s hilarious travel-by-map road-trip sequences.
Segel, who also co-wrote and executive produced the film, said Miss Piggy didn’t put away her diva ways on the new project.
“As for Piggy’s part, she wanted it bigger, I’m not gonna lie to you. She wanted a very strange credit sequence where we all would be introduced, and then it would say, ‘And Miss
Hosts Carrie Underwood, who hails from Checotah, and Brad Paisley appear onstage with Miss Piggy during the 45th annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 9. (AP file photo)
Piggy,’ but then that would just stay on throughout the entire movie,” Segel said.
“I saw nothing wrong with that. I did not demand any rewrites. I want to go on the record for that. But that’s probably just because I didn’t really read the script,” she said, as Kermit did a froggy face palm.
“She just said what she wanted,” Segel confirmed.
“What I do, I just show up to set and, you know, people say their lines and I say whatever comes into my head,” Piggy added.
“The rewrites were basically around Piggy’s improvisation,” Kermit added.
“I thought it turned out good, though,” she said.
All’s well that ends well in the case of Piggy and her Kermie, too, who confirmed they are together.
“We are together,” Kermit said.
“We are together. You can’t get back together if you’re already together,” Miss Piggy added.
“Well, you can but we’d have to separate and then come back again. And it’s too hard to get out of the room,” the frog replied.
Although she won’t be spending them with Adams, Miss Piggy made it clear to Kermie that she would like to spend the holidays in much the same fashion as her co-star, who has an 18-month-old daughter, Aviana.
“Children — a wonderful idea,” Piggy said.
“That sounds wonderful,” Kermit said after she kept dropping hints. “We’ll work on that.”
“I hope so,” she replied.
Along with having children together, Piggy had some savvy advice on how to keep a good guy.
“Implanting one of those GPS chips under the skin, that’s a really good way of keeping track of them,” she said.
“In a place that the guy can’t find — or reach!” Kermit added.
-BAM
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Where was Animal in all these? He’s the best musical muppet ever. He should have made an appearance as well.