Katy Perry Makes a Turn on Daytime TV Drama

by David Chiu

Singer Katy Perry can now add “actress” to her resume as an entertainer. The young pop star, who had already made a splash with the singles ‘Ur So Gay’ and ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ appeared on the CBS daytime drama ‘The Young and the Restless.’ In the episode, Perry played herself posing for the cover of Restless Style magazine.

“They’re saying ‘Ooh, she’s edgy,’” Perry tells AOL Music about her soap opera stint. “Yeah, I’m edgy!” At first she wasn’t sure if this was her type of audience when she agreed to come on ‘The Young and the Restless.’ “Then I heard that Snoop Dogg did [‘One Life to Live’],” she says, “and I was like, ‘If Snoop Dogg’s gonna do it, [then] he’s my standard in life.’”

It’s just another peg in the Santa Barbara, California native’s emerging career as a pop music artist. Already ‘I Kissed a Girl’ has made it onto the Billboard Top Ten singles chart, and it’s number two on iTunes’ Top Songs. It also benefits Perry to be in good graces with gossip blogger Perez Hilton (“There’s no white dots coming out of the side of my mouth,” she jokingly refers to the usual ‘graffiti’ on the celebrity photos posted on Hilton’ Web site). Most recently Madonna raved about ‘Ur So Gay.’ “That’s insane too,” says Perry. “I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Who is paying these people?”

Perry’s Capitol Records full-length debut, ‘One of the Boys,’ is scheduled for a June 17 release. It was a long time coming for her after other record labels had previously dropped her from their rosters. “I’m really excited,” Perry says. “It’s been five years of major ups and downs of telling my friends that I’m gonna have a record come [out]. Then after telling them for two years, they thought I was mental. And my family was like, ‘Okay? Is this gonna happen? What’s going on?’”

‘One of the Boys’ features a blend of catchy pop songs and ballads. Her fondness for being eclectic also applies to the way that she presents herself. “Today I really feel like New York trendy hippy chic,” Perry says. “Usually I like to look straight out of a 1940 pin-up poster dream. I definitely like to try out all kinds of new things, and it kind of keeps people on their toes.”

As mentioned, her two singles have generated considerable attention starting with the title of her EP ‘Ur So Gay’ that came out last November. “It’s a personal chapter out of the ‘Dear Diary,’ which is my record of my life,” she explains about the song. “It talks about a moment [in] my relationship that went sour. “

Her latest hit, ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ (not the Jill Sobule song of the same name) is about curiosity, according to Perry. “[As] females, we’ve always been very sisterly, touchy feely” she says. “We have slumber parties; we make up dance routines in our pajamas; [and] we’re there for each other.”

This summer Perry will be joining the rest of the boys on this latest edition of the Vans Warped Tour. As far as her appearance on ‘The Young and the Restless,’ Perry was asked if she is a soap opera fan. She admits she really wasn’t — in fact, she hardly watches television because she is addicted to the commercials. “They’re so cool, ” she says. “And I have to see what’s gonna happen on ‘Gossip Girl,’ even though I’ve never watched ‘Gossip Girl.’”