Zachary Levi Wants Your Vote, Taylor Swift Needs a Hero and More Lessons of the Week

Over the long Labor Day weekend, you may find yourself wondering whether you learned anything useful these last few days. Well, look no further than Broadway.com's top 10 lessons of the week, from Zachary Levi's political promises to Laura Osnes' Cinderella snub! Read on and educate yourself! 

Zachary Levi Has a Future in Politics
Move over, Anthony Weiner: Zachary Levi is hitting the campaign trail! When Levi was gushing to us about how much he loves shaking hands and kissing babies at the First Date stage door, he joked that “if I’m ever going to have a future in politics, I’ve got to start now.” Hmm…Mayor Levi. That’s got a nice ring to it. First course of action: a moratorium on stage door selfies?

Motown Birthdays Parties Are Better Than Yours
There are happy birthdays, and there are HAPPY birthdays, and we imagine that any birthday celebration at Motown The Musical is of the latter breed. We learned in Charl Brown’s new video blog Miracle Man that a Motown b-day party includes dazzling vocals, powerful riffs and more harmonies than a Sondheim ensemble number. Watch the vlog and see for yourself—but just know that whoever sings your next birthday serenade won’t be nearly as sassy.

Taylor Swift Is into Superheroes
When Taylor Swift cast Spider-Man star Reeve Carney in her music video for “I Knew You Were Trouble” last year, we had an inkling that she was into singing crimefighters. Now that Swift won an MTV Video Music Award, thanked Carney in her speech AND brought him to the awards show with her, it’s official: Taylor Swift is definitely caught up in Spidey’s web. (For real though, Tay-Tay: if you ever want to play Mary Jane on Broadway, we’re sure Reeve will return to swoop in and pick you up from "lying on the cold hard ground. Oh!")

Patrick Stewart Offers Free YouTube Acting Classes
Sir Patrick Stewart impressed his fans this week when he appeared in a homemade YouTube video in which the actor explained to his fiancee off the proper way to do the “quadruple take,” a comedy technique of (according to Stewart) epically challenging proportions. Thanks for the freebie, Stewie! If the No Man’s Land/Waiting for Godot star is offering classes, we can’t wait for the next one, wherein the thesp demonstrates the much sought-after “quadruple twerk.”

Laura Osnes Got the Stepsister Treatment from Cinderella
Laura Osnes bid farewell to her video blog this week, but before she said goodbye, the star took her camera along for a quick vacation to Disneyworld. But while she was there, Lady O totally got snubbed by her own character. First, the Disney princess didn’t show up at the photo op (“It was only Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel,” sighed Osnes); then, they wouldn’t let Osnes film in Cinderella’s castle suite. Burn. Don’t they KNOW who she is? She’s Broadway royalty! (Or, at least she is in Act II.)

Amelie’s Director Isn’t Helping French Stereotypes
There’s one person who isn’t too excited to see Amelie the Broadway-aimed musical, and that’s the movie’s super-grumpy director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who said in an interview, “I hate Broadway. I think it is the very incarnation of tackiness.” Sacre bleu! We would respond, but that would be acknowledging this surly Frenchman’s stubborn opinion, which we think is the very incarnation of douchey. 

Will Swenson Just Can’t Get Enough Drag
Will Swenson knows how to rock a pair of stilettos and he has no problem doing it eight times a week. The Tony nominee will slip on the famous fishnet stockings of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Hunter Foster’s production of The Rocky Horror Show at Bucks County Playhouse, and we couldn’t be more pleased to see Will get back in touch with his Priscilla drag days. When you’re a little older, Will, we sense a revival of Hairspray could be right up your alley. Welcome to your 60s!

Rachelle Rak Accidentally Flashed Her Tveits to Aaron
During her memorable appearance on Show People, fierce Broadway star Rachelle Rak confessed that her plan to surprise co-star Aaron Tveit during Catch Me If You Can went hilariously wrong. Instead of catching Tveit off guard with light-up pasties, a backstage snafu caused her to go fully topless and show Tveit her Catch-Me-If-You-cans—on stage! We’re upset we didn’t get to see Tveit’s reaction, but we imagine it went a little something like this. To quote Miss Rak: "Gagagagaga!"

Stark Sands Is On the Road to Becoming Jeremy Piven
Kinky Boots star Stark Sands admits to loving sushi, but told us that his doctor has already alerted him to having high levels of “mercury toxicity.” If you’ll remember, Entourage’s Jeremy Piven used the excuse of mercury-poisoning-by-way-of-sushi to drop out of his Broadway debut in 2008’s Speed-the-Plow. Does this mean Sands is laying the groundwork for a similar sushi-related alibi in the future? We hope not, ‘cause there’s no one else we’d rather see shake and sashimi in his place.

Ethan Hawke Is Super Patriotic
In a candid interview promoting his new movie Getaway, forthcoming Macbeth star Ethan Hawke revealed why he wanted to tackle Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy. “These British punks, they grow up on this stuff, so I’m trying to do America proud,” said Hawke. “Stand up and do some American Shakespeare.” All together now: Huh?! But seriously, way to go, Ethan! There’s no better way to show your red-white-and-blue than by playing a Scottish king.