Star Trek Actors Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton Feud in Hilarious Omeleto Video
Star Trek: The Next Generation stars LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner have come together in a new video aimed at poking fun of their public personas and pitting the two against one another in a feud that overruns a fundraiser and causes havoc at an awards show. The short comes from Omeleto, home to a wide variety of different kinds of short films. Spiner takes the central role, lampooning himself as a shallow, pretentious jerk who begins and ends the short with musical numbers that would probably stand on their own as short-short films, given the YouTube (and Star Trek) ecosphere.
The short, titled "Brentwood," sees Spiner vacillating between wanting to distance himself from his genre past, and wanting the material success and praise that comes with that success. You can see how the official description breaks it down below:
"The delight of Brentwood is watching an iconic actor poke fun at himself and the peculiarly enduring level of stardom that being on an iconic, much-beloved show and franchise confers. Though Spiner the character has tried to move on, he's not quite where he wants to be despite all his efforts and is both hampered and seduced by his enduring fame to remain in the past. The great irony, of course, is that by lampooning himself and the grip of stardom, Spiner the actor reveals terrific range, comedic chops, and wily self-awareness -- not to mention a facility as an enjoyable song-and-dance man -- and it would be immense fun to follow this story of a former star finding his way in a new Hollywood. Which, after all, isn't so different from the old Hollywood, except with more hashtags on social media and more ways to get famous than ever."
Spiner is joined in the piece not just by Burton, but also comedian Doug Benson, Frasier's Peri Gilpin, and more. It's a short piece, and without too many characters that you have to get to know well, but it's got a sense of fun, a sense of humor about itself, and a kinetic flow that makes the time pass even quicker.
Of course, key to the premise here is that Spiner hates being associated so closely with Data, and doesn't play the character anymore -- which would be hard to believe since he played the role very recently, in the first season of the Star Trek: The Next Generation sequel series Picard. But we'll forgive him that one, small creative license...!
Source: comicbook.com