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HOT CORN Guide | Our favourite actors’ cameos in music videos… Part II

Cox, Depp and Petty all feature twice as we continue our list of classic cameos

Courteney jives with Bruce and mopes around with Counting Crows. Kim Basinger dies and gets romanced by Tom Petty. Claire Danes sprouts wings with Soul Asylum. And don’t blink or you’ll miss Adam Scott getting this close to his idol. Yes, it’s the second part of our favourite movie star appearances in music videos! Read part one here.

COURTENEY COX – ‘A LONG DECEMBER’ BY COUNTING CROWS
Counting Crows’ frontman Adam Duritz briefly dated both Cox and her Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston, although the latter didn’t stick around long enough to appear in any videos. Judging by Cox’s expression throughout this one – from their superb second record Recovering The Satellites­ ­­– that relationship might have been about to hit the rocks, too.

 

COURTENEY COX – ‘DANCING IN THE DARK’ BY
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
It’s a much happier Cox who gets her boogie on with Bruce in this iconic video for The Boss’s first ever number one single. Her wide-eyed enthusiasm and endearingly dorky boogying is the only correct response to being that close to the greatest rock star of all time.

 

KIM BASINGER – ‘MARY JANE’S LAST DANCE’ BY TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
In this video for a bona fide classic from the sadly departed Petty, the Floridian rocker plays a mortician who gets a little too intrigued by Kim Basinger’s corpse. There’s a darkly funny tinge to the ‘romance’ that ensues in this video, making it a perfect fit for a man who always had a wicked sense of humour.

 

JOHNNY DEPP & FAYE DUNAWAY – ‘INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN’ BY TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
If you needed any more proof of Petty’s iconic status, you just need to look at the people who wanted to work with him, from George Harrison and Bob Dylan to Johnny Depp, at the height of his coolness, and Faye Dunaway. The title track from Petty’s eight album with the Heartbreakers is a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of fame, Johnny Depp playing Eddie, the rebel without a clue, while Dunaway plays the motel manager who recognises his potential. Gabriele Anwar and Matt Leblanc also appear in the mini epic, directed by Julien Temple.

 

JOHNNY DEPP – ‘IT’S A SHAME ABOUT RAY’ BY
THE LEMONHEADS
Depp has always brushed shoulders with musicians, forming the band P with Gibby Haines of The Butthole Surfers, playing slide guitar on ‘Fade In-Out’ for Oasis and dueting with Marilyn Manson on a cover of ‘You’re So Vain’. It wasn’t hugely surprising then to see him appear in the video for this alt-rock classic from a band fronted by another floppy-haired 90s heartthrob, Evan Dando.

 

ALICIA SILVERSTONE­ – ‘CRYIN’ BY AEROSMITH
Alicia Silverstone was on the verge of superstardom when she appeared alongside Steven Dorff and Josh Holloway in the video for this 90s slow dance staple. She later returned to team up with lead singer Steve Tyler’s daughter Liv in the video for another epic power ballad ‘Crazy’, also from the band’s multi-platinum album Get A Grip. Fun fact: Liv grew up thinking Todd Rundgren was her dad, only to discover when she was eight that it was actually a different 70s rock legend.

 

CLAIRE DANES – ‘JUST LIKE ANYONE’ BY SOUL ASYLUM
Contrary to common belief, Soul Asylum didn’t just write ‘Runaway Train’ and disappear. The spotlight may have shifted away from them after their next album, the underrated Let Your Dim Light Shine, failed to make much of an impression, but they still had enough clout to get a post-My So Called Life, pre-Romeo & Juliet Claire Danes to appear in the video. Danes plays a young woman whose physical deformity turns out to be something rather surprising. If anything is more 90s than this video, we haven’t seen it.

 

ANGELINA JOLIE – ‘ANYBODY SEEN MY BABY?’ BY
THE ROLLING STONES
The video for one of The Stones’ better 90s songs (co-written with k.d. lang) is set against the backdrop of a decadent burlesque club, Ronnie Wood playing the sleazy compere. Jolie plays the “baby” of the title, pursued through the streets of New York by Jagger, whose increasingly erratic dance moves might explain why she’s proving so elusive. Before getting her big break in Hackers­, Jolie also appeared in three other music videos, two for Meat Loaf and one for The Lemonheads.

 

EVA MENDES & MILA KUNIS – ‘THE END HAS NO END’
BY THE STROKES
The Strokes’ manager Ryan Stiles stars in this enigmatic video which shows a regular schlub’s life flashing before his eyes. Said life includes dating Mila Kunis in high school, having a baby with Eva Mendes and being confronted by the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pretty standard stuff then.

 

ADAM SCOTT – ‘DRIVE’ BY R.E.M.
This one is a little harder to spot than the others. On his brilliant podcast RU Talkin R.E.M. RE: ME? (hosted with comedian Scott Aukerman), R.E.M. superfan Adam Scott tells the tale of heading to a casting call to play an extra in the video for the first single from the Athens band’s now-classic album. He confesses on the podcast that he’d never been able to find himself in the video, but keen-eyed listeners managed to spot him holding up Michael Stipe as he crowd-surfs. Skip to 3:17 for his big moment.

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