David Faustino: How I Was Lured Into 'Let It Be' Mash-Up

 

Handlers, beware: next time you walk a client down the red carpet and get accosted by a Norwegian TV crew asking him/her to sing, run for the doors! That has to be what a few dozen celebrities and their publicists are thinking right now, as the viral video sensation known as the Norwegian “Let It Be,” featuring some 40 random actors and personalities singing snippets of The Beatles classic against an idyllic ocean background -- everyone from Glenn Close to Jason Alexander, Philip Michael Thomas to Tonya Harding -- makes its way around the online universe. The six-minute clip serves as a promotion for Norwegian TV show Gylne Tider (Golden Times) in which host Øyvind Mund interviews equally random celebrities about their past work. Its fourth season premiered October 31 on Norway’s TV2, the largest network in the country which airs many syndicated American shows including Melrose Place and Seinfeld.

 

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to one of the video's participants, Married With Children star David Faustino, for an explanation of how he ended up in this bizarre clip, which the tireless internet trolls at TMZ brought to our attention (the clip has since been removed from YouTube - see it here, for now). As it turns out, his inclusion -- somewhat regrettable now, he confesses -- came under the guise of charity. 

 

“It was just one of those things that happened on the red carpet at some event, where a camera crew nabbed random, extremely gullible celebrities -- apparently like myself -- and asked them for an interview,” he tells THR. Faustino adds that the singing portion was presented at the end. “They were, like, ‘We're putting this video together and it’s for charity,’ ” he says. "At least I remember I THOUGHT I was doing something good for somebody."  

 

Faustino admits it was his own singing voice used in the video, which, according to TV2’s website, took nearly three months to edit. As for whether his participation was obtained under false pretenses? Says Faustino: "Oh well. Live and learn. Fuck it. Let it Be.”

 

The new season of Golden Times, meanwhile, promises sanctioned interviews with “pop stars, sports legends, heroes and villains” including Roger Moore, Huey Lewis, Ricki Lake and Pamela Anderson. It’s not the first all-star stunt the program has pulled. In 2008, the show recruited the likes of Louis Gossett, Jr., Bo Derek, Linda Evans and Stefani Powers for a lip-synched version of “We Are the World.” Check out that clip below.