The last time Prince was associated with the Super Bowl was when he was featured in the halftime show seven years ago in Miami. The Star Tribune reports that he will be back on Super Bowl Sunday, but this time the legendary musician will play himself in an episode of Fox’s “New Girl,” to air after the game.
Although he will perform at least one song, Prince will do more than make music in the appearance. E! News reported some of the details of the sitcom stunt casting. The cable network revealed that Prince will provide relationship advice to the lead characters. A preview clip shows Jess, the Zooey Deschanel character, attending a party at Prince’s house following a traffic incident. (Were they in Chanhassen?) In the middle of it, Prince takes Jess and her boyfriend Nick (played by actor Jake Johnson) aside individually to talk about their relationship. Jess is struggling to tell Nick she loves him and explains to Prince that she’s worried she’s going to lose him. “That’s stupid,” Prince says. “You’re stupid,” Jess replies and then is horrified when she realizes she just called Prince stupid.
The Star Tribune said that Prince contacted Deschanel by e-mail last season. He said he was a fan of the show, telling her that he only things he watches on TV are her sitcom and the news. Hannah Simone, who plays Jess’ gal pal, Cece, told TV writer Neal Justin that the crew had fun with Prince during his three days on the set .“We do some strange stuff on the show, and he was up for all it,” she said. “I heard he had a really good sense of humor and he really does. He was wonderful, incredibly open, sweet and charming.”
On a recent episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” actor Jake Johnson told a story about trying to break the ice with Prince by chatting about the Minnesota Vikings. It was going well until Johnson brought up Josh Freeman. Prince freely admitted he had never heard of the backup quarterback.
