I knew this was comming: Lusty online ode to Hillary Clinton amuses, enrages viewers

Lusty online ode to Hillary Clinton amuses, enrages viewers

Sheldon Alberts, CanWest News ServicePublished: Saturday, July 14, 2007
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WASHINGTON -- Singer Taryn Southern has flirted with fame and fortune for years - first on American Idol, then as co-star of a little-known travel series on a U.S. satellite TV network.
But never did the 21-year-old brunette imagine she'd get her big break performing a song in lusty praise of Hillary Clinton.

Just weeks after Barack Obama's presidential aspirations were boosted by a viral video featuring a busty brunette with a crush on the Democratic senator from Illinois, Southern's online ode to Clinton's sexual charms has made her the new pin-up girl of the 2008 presidential campaign.

The racy Hott4Hill video, which mixes corny political humour with lesbian innuendo and patriotic imagery, garnered 350,000 YouTube hits in just 10 days and led to an appearance by Southern on CNN's top political program, The Situation Room.

"I just shot this video last week and now things have gone crazy. I'm shocked it went this far," Southern said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where she is filming an independent movie. "I hope Hillary has a good sense of humour."

It's not entirely clear, however, that this presidential contender is laughing.
The former first lady, long the target of rumours about her sexuality, has pointedly refused to comment on the enormous popularity of the "Hillary chick" video, despite recently inviting supporters to upload "creative" online clips explaining why they want her to be president.
Southern, a contestant on American Idol in 2004, wrote and produced Hott4Hill to spoof an online video known simply as "Obama Girl." The Obama video features model/actress Amber Lee Ettinger, in various states of undress, lip syncing a song that expresses love for Obama. It has generated more than two million YouTube hits since its debut in June.
Since the Hott4Hill video debuted earlier this month, it has been praised as cute political parody and denounced as immoral garbage.

It opens with Southern, dressed as a cleavage-revealing school teacher, whispering to Clinton on a cellphone while her grade-school students watch.

The video quickly shifts to scenes of Southern in a French maid outfit, a tank top and short shorts, and a stars-and-stripes bikini.

"I have a crush on a girl named Hill / but she's not with me; she's with a guy named Bill / Hillary, I like your hair / the pantsuits you wear / and the shape of your derriere," Southern sings.

"H-I-L-L-A-R-Y / I know you're not gay, but I'm hoping for bi ... lingual."
Southern insists she had no idea Clinton's sexuality has been questioned, primarily by political opponents and unfriendly biographers.

"You have to keep in mind that when Hillary was first lady, gosh, I was in middle school," the singer said.

Still, Southern was worried about how the homosexual references might be received in her native Kansas and sought approval from her parents in Wichita before posting it online.
"I was a little concerned about what they might say, because here was their little daughter dancing around in a bikini for a lesbian video for Hillary Clinton," she says. "But they got that it was a parody."