Justin Guarini’s Getting Married This Weekend

I have fond memories of Justin Guarini. Not of Justin Guarini on American Idol — I couldn’t stand him from the start — but of Justin Guarini on my blog. On my little Evil Beet blog on the Blogger platform, the one I started because I loved to write and I loved gossip and I needed an outlet, the one that I started without any sense that, years later, it would be my full-time job. That blog’s still alive, if you want to check it out. In fact, it still gets some traffic from search engines. Back in August 2006, I wrote this post about Justin Guarini, essentially intimating that he was no longer particularly relevant. The blog, at that point, was about two months old. Guarini’s fans, who call themselves the J-Guars, descended en masse to comment on the story and to share with me their hatred toward me and point out all the many ways in which I was ill-informed, ignorant and/or had taste in music so bad as to be potentially fatal. It was the first time something I’d written caused any sort of interest on the internet, and it was the first of the hate comments. There have been many seconds and thirds ad infinitum on both those counts by now. But I always think of Justin as being somehow seminal in the growth of this site.

Justin, you helped me begin a journey that would mold the course of my life for years and years, in positive and exciting ways. And so I’m delighted to hear that you’re getting married this weekend to Reina Capodici, whom you met in high school. I’m delighted to hear that you’ve elected to use a female minister from the Universal Church to preside over the vows. I sincerely hope that this seminal event in your life will grow years and years and happiness and support. I also hope you can steal some publicity away from that damn Kardashian sister who is pregnant getting married this weekend.