Spin Cycle

A Legend has it: Star an EGOT

Congratulations, John Legend! He got the EGOT!

And we don't mean Eosinophil Granule Ontogeny Transcript, Erythrocyte Glutamic Oxaloacetic Transferase or Erythrocyte Glutamate Oxaloacetate Transaminase (thanks, Wikipedia).

We mean the EGOT, as in the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony quadfecta.

Legend has it -- not John Legend, just regular old legend has it -- that the term EGOT was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas. Yes, that one. Don Johnson's pastel-wearing partner on Miami Vice back in the 1980s.

According to a 2016 story from TheAtlantic.com, Thomas outlined his EGOT success goals in a 1984 interview with The Associated Press: "'That stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony,' he told the reporter, Jerry Buck. 'Hopefully in the next five years I will win all those awards.'"

Thomas, who delivered a couple of failed albums and hasn't worked much lately but for voice work in video games, is still waiting. Not just to win, but to even be nominated. When will his EGOT status happen? He can't even ask the Psychic Reader's Network, for whom he was a spokesman before things ended in an ugly way that no one -- even those Psychic Readers -- saw coming.

Back to singer Legend. He had been just a regular GOT with some 10 Grammy awards, one Oscar and one Tony.

Then last Sunday, Legend secured his "E," winning an Emmy at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for his performance in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. (For the same production, Sirs Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice also won and got to join the EGOT club.)

Not only is Legend an EGOT.

He's also the YEGOT. At 39, he's the youngest performer to ever score all four.

Well, not entirely. He tied songwriter Robert Lopez, famous for co-creating The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q and composing songs in Disney movies like Frozen and Coco -- he's the only guy who has won all four awards multiple times. Which makes Lopez a MEGOT.

Legend also is the first BMEGOT. He's the first black male performer to earn this distinction.

We've mentioned four of the 15 EGOT winners (in competitive, not honorary categories) already -- Lopez, Rice, Lloyd Webber and Legend.

As for other EGOT legends of sound, screen and stage, they are: composer Richard Rodgers; actress Helen Hays; actress Rita Moreno; actor John Gielgud; actress Audrey Hepburn; composer Marvin Hamlisch; composer Jonathan Tunick; director Mel Brooks; director Mike Nichols; actress Whoopi Goldberg; and producer Scott Rudin.

We expect there will be others joining the club too. There are plenty of artists who are just one award away: GOT Elton John, EOT Al Pacino, EGO Kate Winslet and EOT Helen Mirren and EOT Jessica Lange to name a few.

And there's Cyndi Lauper. With an Emmy, Grammys and a Tony, she's an EGT who is just one movie song, score or soundtrack away. Sadly "Goonies 'R' Good Enough" from 1985's The Goonies didn't count.

Another EGT: Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda who has an Emmy, two Grammys and three Tonys. He just needs one cinematic success. Or he can rest on his laurels as a PEGT; he also has a Pulitzer Prize.

And yet another EGT: Cynthia Nixon. She has two Emmys, a Grammy and a Tony. This is why we need a Sex and the City 3 movie, no matter how critically panned the first two were -- third time's the charm.

Cher is an EGO, with an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar. She's just one theatrical production away, from the EGOT. And as producer of The Cher Show, opening on Broadway in December, her time surely has arrived!

Or maybe not. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Cher, after seeing performances of the Chicago run, said, the show "needs work. I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't care."

Leave it to Cher to over-Cher.

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Spin Cycle is a weekly smirk at pop culture.

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Invision/AP/RICHARD SHOTWELL

John Legend: Singer, actor, EGOT.

Style on 09/16/2018

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