Idol Chatter & Voice Views

You could say Katharine McPhee’s career has taken a strange twist, in a wonderful sort of way.

Let’s review.

First, the brunette beauty goes blond to spice up the release of her second album. Which, quite frankly, bombed.

Now brunette again, Katharine is about to star in a new TV show about her aspirations to portray the most famous blonde of them all — Marilyn Monroe.

In announcing recently that it had picked up The Voice for a second season, NBC also revealed that it will serve as a lead-in to a new show called “Smash.”

The premise of “Smash” is pretty simple. A group of producers decide Marilyn Monroe’s life would make a wonderful Broadway musical.

Of course, that requires the perfect person to play the  lead role.  They’re considering two singers:  A gal from the chorus line who’s hungry for a starring role and a gal from the Midwest determined to make it big in the Big Apple.

McPhee plays the latter role, as part of a cast that also includes Debra Messing (“Will & Grace”) and Anjelica Huston.

With the surprising successful The Voice as a lead-in and enough big names in the cast to attract viewers, you have to like the show’s odds.

And the latest “Smash” news came today in a press release from NBC announcing that Columbia Records will be releasing a soundtrack from the series and has also signed McPhee to a solo recording deal.

Not bad, Kat.

Of course, the Season Five runner-up isn’t new to acting. She co-starred in the 2008 film “The House Bunny,” has appeared on a number of TV shows and is one of the stars in an upcoming romantic comedy, “You May Not Kiss the Bride.”

Here’s a trailer that provides a glimpse of what we can expect from “Smash.”

Love how it opens with Kat singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” one of her signature performances from American Idol.