If you're a (really) nice girl between the ages of six and sixteen, you probably get twitterpated at the very thought of the Jonas Brothers, the latest commercial triumph from the marketing geniuses at the Walt Disney Company. Unfortunately, none of the journalists who participated in a January 29 teleconference with the boys fit that description. As a result, the hour-long session wound up revealing more about mainstream-media entertainment coverage than it did about Kevin, Joe and Nick, the three Jonai.
The budding hunksters are certainly keeping accountants busy. In addition to their current headlining jaunt, which has sold out at arenas coast to coast, they're prominently featured in Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, a movie commemorating their 2007 appearances with Cyrus that saw parents ponying up the price of a snowmobile to get their little darlings into the spectacle. (Those who couldn't afford that fee helped the flick top the box office in its opening weekend, earning an astonishing $29 million.) They've also got a new CD coming out in the next several months. And they're set to star in Camp Rock, a Disney Channel offering airing this summer that the House of Mouse hopes will cha-ching on par with High School Musical.
Clearly, it's the brothers' moment, which explains the wide variety of writers who queued up to quiz them — a bizarre potpourri that ranged from scribes at major daily newspapers to reps of Tiger Beat and Elle Girl. Frankly, the latter group touched on more interesting topics. Thanks to their hard-nailed inquisitiveness, America will soon discover that the three like to nosh on Hot Pockets (sounds dirty!) and believe in their heart of hearts that guys and girls can just be friends (awww). In contrast, most of the old-school scribes obviously didn't give shit one about these stud muffins and wouldn't have wasted their time jawing with them if they hadn't been forced by their editors. So they generally asked going-through-the-motions questions about favorite venues and musical influences in a tone that emphasized their massive disinterest.
But what about the children? They want to know stuff — like whether or not Nick and Miley were going out until recently, and whether they broke up! So even though we were warned to focus on the TV and movie projects and tour, I broke protocol — and to his credit, brave Nick didn't take the no-comment route. "There's always a lot of rumors going around about who we're dating," he said. "You know, if we take a picture with somebody, immediately we're dating them. And I can honestly tell you we're not dating. Thank you."
And a grateful kid nation thanks you, too, Nick.
Visit http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/ for more of our interview with the Jonas Brothers.
