Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com, Clayton Chase/WireImage.comScarlett Johansson’s best friend, singer and songwriter Jessie Baylin, has high hopes for ScarJo’s wedding to Ryan Reynolds.
“I’m really excited for them,” Baylin, 24, told me earlier today. “I think Ryan is amazing. She’s beautiful, and she’s going to look beautiful.”
Johansson may want to avoid looking at Baylin during the ceremony. “If she sees me crying, then she’ll start crying,” said Baylin, who has known the actress since they were 14-year-old schoolmates in New York City. “She’s a bawler.”
But it's not just weddings. Find out what else gets Scarlett reaching for the tissues:
“She’s been to my shows at the Bowery Ballroom,” Baylin said of the famed New York performance venue. “I’d see her all teary-eyed in the audience and I was like, 'Stop it!' I’m like, 'If you’re going to cry, then I’m going to cry.' ”
The tears of joy aren’t going to stop anytime soon. Baylin’s new album, Firesight, will be released June 24. On tour since mid-April, she'll fulfill a dream of playing at the legendary Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival June 14 in Manchester, Tenn.
“Everything I own is wrinkled,” she said with a laugh about life on the road. “In the last two shows, I had to apologize for my wrinkled dress. I put it in the bathroom with the shower on, but it’s just not working.”
A native of New Jersey, Baylin recently moved to Tennessee after a stint in Los Angeles. “Whenever I fall into my Jersey accent I’m either pissed off or drunk,” she said. “I went to school in New York so I lost it, but when I first got there Scarlett and everybody made fun of me and called me Jersey Girl.”
And now the two are calling each other the competition. Johansson recently released her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, a collection of 10 Tom Waits covers and an original tune. “She’s very excited for me, and I’m so excited for her,” Baylin said. "I think her record sounds amazing, and it was a fun thing for her to do.”
Not so fun, however, is the tabloid world’s obsession with Johansson. “The first time I really noticed it was when we went shopping one day,” Baylin said. “The paparazzi followed us for nine hours!”
Does Baylin worry about being plagued by the paps someday herself? “I just want to be able to make music,” she said. “I’m up for whatever comes with it.”
If the high praise from music critics is any indication, I have a feeling lots of good will be coming her way.