American Idol - The Finale!!

It's started!! Ryan and Simon bicker for a few seconds and then almost immediately, Blake and Jordin are singing "I Saw Her Standing There". Blake has terrible shoes on again.

Ryan throws it over to Gwen Stefani on tour. Mia thinks she's lip synching. It's hard to tell! Something's definitely off.

Kelly Clarkson!! Looking good in over the knee boots and a short dress!! She sounds fantastic!

Group song! Sanjaya still can't sing. All the guys are wearing white suits - I hate that look. Phil was allowed to take off his Navy uniform for tonight - that's a relief.

Ugh, Blake is rapping with some guy. Awful.

Now the girls! All in white as well. Gina's had a new haircut!! Haley's legs are still long.

Tony Bennett is well enough to perform and sings "Once In My Life".

Yay - Carrie Underwood is singing "I'll Stand By You". Carrie is my favorite Idol. Although she looks a bit odd wearing a long dress over jeans! Carrie is so gracious -thanks Idol and all her fans. She's very smart not to forget where she got her big break!

Sanjaya is getting his own segment - and oh my god - he's performing with Joe Perry from Aerosmith!!! What?????

GREEN DAY!!! Fantastic. The rumors were true. They sing "Working Class Hero".

The wizards at Idol have managed to coax Rubben Studdard out of hiding to sing with Jordin. Rubben still sounds great.

Poor Taylor Hicks - he had to follow Green Day.

Bette Midler - fabulous - wait - she's singing - Wind Beneath My Wings. Nooooooo. Mia and I are wondering what she's doing there - I suggested Bette needed a night out?

9:50 - only about 8 minutes left before we find out who wins.

American Idol tribute to Sgt Pepper!! Kelly Clarkson comes out first and sings Sgt Peppers, then out comes Hicks - enough said. Then Carrie again - looking so much better in a lovely short black dress and singing "She's Leaving". Suddenly she's being backed up by the Idols. They appeared out of nowhere. Rubben shows up and sings Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Is this medly ever going to end? It's 9:56 and still no winner. Now the Idols are singing "I'll get by with a little help from my Friends".

9:58 and there's a commercial. This doens't leave much time for the winner to sing "This is my Now" and sob.

10:03 - It's finally time. Ryan tells us there were 74 million votes. Simon and Randy both think it's going to be Jordin.

Dim the lights - it's JORDIN.

The crowd goes wild. She's excited. Blake doesn't really look that unhappy. Jordin expresses her love for everyone! It's over for another year!!

This Is My Now

It definitely was Jordin Sparks' NOW last night, as she out classed and out sang and out dressed Blake Lewis every step of the way during American Idol.

The winning song from the writing competition "This is my Now" wasn't too bad at all and Jordin sung it with such passion that she couldn't even hold it together at the end and started to cry. Blake couldn't hold it together for other reasons, it was obvious he hated the song and didn't really put that much into performing it. He was probably mesmerized by his own hideous gold shoes. Where did he get those?

Overall Simon said that Blake performed the first song the best, but Jordin "wiped the floor" with him in the the singing department. Paula loved everyone equally, and Randy, dressed as some throwback from Sgt Pepper, liked Blake but gave the night to Jordin.

Ryan made a point of mentioning Paula's broken nose and then called her dog a bitch, but implying that he was really talking about Paula. She took it well.

Jordin to win it all!!

Oops - Bad Call America.

Melinda Doolittle is out of the running to be America's next Idol. This is not a complete shock, as her personality is a little bit flat, even though her voice is spectacular.

So, that leaves Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis in the finale. I can hardly stand it. I think this means that Blake will win the whole thing. Jordin is just a bit too inconsistent and young. And Blake has his vast army of fans and his sobbing father on his side. (After last night's visits home, don't you find it a bit weird a grown man calling his father Daddy?)

Melinda took the rejection well, no sobbing on stage . My Tivo cut out before I could hear what Simon had to say about the whole situation, so if anyone heard it, please tell me!

The only highlight of the evening for me was Jackie Collins in the audience!! Maybe she's writing a novel about tacky reality shows?

Brace yourselves for next weeks saccharine and lengthy offerings from Idol!!

Who Will It Be????

I have no idea who is going to get through to the final two in American Idol, after last nights performances. All three were pretty evenly matched if you look at the big picture, and Dial Idol has them neck and neck.

Overall, I still can't stand Blake but he did "bring it" last night with all three songs, and Meldina's voice can't be beaten, and Jordin has the best personality.

Jordin sang "Wishing on a Star" by Rose Royce - Simon's choice, "She Works Hard for the Money" - producers choice, and her own choice was "I who have nothing". Overall everyone thought she was great, fantastic, hot and Simon said he didn't like the arrangement of the Rose Royce song, and that he felt I Who Have Nothing was too old for Jordin to be singing. She'll get the sympathy vote for Simon's comments. Ryan tried needling Simon, saying that Simon didn't even like the song that he chose.

Blake sang Roxanne - I hated it. Paula loved it. He then sang some Maroon 5 song which was OK and then some terrible Robin Thicke song, which he clearly stole from Beethoven. Hated that too. Paula said Blake was "in his element". I said "Blake, you should watch yourself in a mirror when you do those irritating moves - then maybe you'll quit".

Melinda aced a Whitney Houston song, Nutbush City Limits and I am Woman. All good, with a smidge of personality creeping out in each song.

Prediction: Melinda/Blake final two. Hope: Melinda/Jordin final two.

Blaze of Glory

Hands up if you think that Jon Bon Jovi is hot! And an all round great guy! I'm amazed that he didn't punch Blake Lewis in the head for beat boxing " You Give Love a Bad Name". Simon was right - I'm in the half of the audience that hated it.

Phil sang "Going Down in a Blaze of Glory". Prophecy? Jordin was miserable singing "Living on a Prayer", which she might be doing after last nights performance. Lakisha sang "This Ain't a Love Song" and Simon liked it so much he jumped up and kissed her. Chris Richardson did "Dead or Alive" and it was OK, and Melinda was just like a young, stumpy Tina Turner performing "Have a Nice Day".

It was one of the better episodes of Idol this whole season, but the main draw card was Bon Jovi himself - yummy!

ps. Antonella Barba was in the audience!

Idol Gives Back - The Recap!

Ryan Seacrest announces that not only did they get 70 million votes last night, it was going to be the most shocking elimination EVER!!!! OMG!! Is that a suit Simon is wearing??

Hey - it's Ellen De Generes - who asks if she is getting kicked off? I think it's going to be Melinda - that would truly be shocking! Ellen introduces Earth, Wind and Fire. Is that the original guys? They don't look too bad, and they sing a medley!

Quincy Jones mentors the Idols and writes and anthem for them - Time To Care!! Then Quincy conducts and the Idols sing their caring anthem. Blake still looks irritating.

Ben Stiller!! I love Ben Stiller!! Ben sings and threatens not to stop until $200 million has been raised. We are only 30 minutes into the program and already Ryan is torturing the contestants with safe/not safe. Melinda is safe. I was wrong. Blake is safe. This elimination is turning out not to be so shocking after all. Unless of course it's Jordin - gasp!

Jack Black! Jumps on stage and sings Kiss From a Rose - he's fantastic!! Simon says he's better than Sanjaya (whose in the audience - and so is Seal!!) Seal loves him too. Carrie Underwood sings "I'll Stand By You" while they show a montage of Carrie in Africa! She sounds fantastic. Rascal Flatts sing.

Phil is safe!! That means Lakisha, Jordin and Chris are the bottom three - WHAT?? Jordin??

Ellen personally donates $100,000. Then Josh Groban sings "You Raise Me Up". Everyone is getting teary. Kelly Clarkson wearing some kind of Janis Joplin mumu thing, sings Up to the Mountain. The crowd goes nuts.

Lakisha is safe. What's going on here - this leaves Chris and Jordin. I'm not getting a good feeling.

Celine Dion and Elvis. Elvis is in the building - I'm so excited. It's hologram Elvis!!!! It's bloody brilliant. Elvis is really standing there next to her. They are singing "If I Can Dream". I LOVE it.

Finally the elimination - it's NOBODY!! Everyone is safe!! How cruel. Jordin is in tears. Next week two people go home. Yikes. Total let down. Bono finally shows up!! Idols sing "American Prayer". It's all over.

Idol - Gives Back!!

Last night's American Idol was quite the mixed bag. Bono was announced by Ryan Seacrest as the mentor, but was never seen. Maybe he has nothing to plug. The six performances were interspersed with footage from Africa and all around America of needy children. It was all very moving, and I do think that Idol is trying to be genuine with this fund raising effort. One of the best pieces was Simon going to a huge food bank in LA and meeting the volunteers. He proclaimed "I've never met nice people before!". Maybe that's part of his problem? Ryan also informed us that NewsCorp (Fox's parent company) would be donating 10c for every vote called in up to 50 million votes - that's $5 million dollars. So everyone was endlessly encouraged to vote and often!

The performances were ordinary except for Jordin, who stole the show with "You'll Never Walk Alone". She was amazing. Blake Lewis sang a flat and uninspired version of John Lennon's "Imagine". Lakisha murdered Fantasia's "I Believe". I can't remember what Chris Richardson sang. Melinda gave a nice performance of a Faith Hill song and Phil did quite a good job with Garth Brooks' "The Change".

My prediction - Idol will get 50 million votes and make $5 million from NewsCorp and either Blake or Lakisha will get the hook.

America's Love Affair with Bad Singing is Finally Over

Wearing a brown t-shirt that said "Life is Beautiful" and sporting a curly bob - Sanjaya sobbed on Lakisha's sholder when Ryan Seacreast informed him that he was going home! I'm really shocked that he took it like that. I thought for sure he was expecting to be getting the boot every week, but it looks like Sanjaya thought he was in it for the long haul. I guess that explains all the cockyness. Sanjaya managed to pull it together to give us another horrible performance of "Something to Talk About" changing the words at the end to "Let's talk about hair, hair hair". Good one.

Inexplicably, Fergie was allowed to "sing" one of her songs. She's awful. How she got to where she is today is totally beyond me, although she was wearing interesting shoes.

Martina McBride sang, she was fabulous, but her daughter stole the show chatting with Ryan and answering questions meant for Martina, and generally being adorable.

Ryan Seacrest split the Idols into two groups and then asked Melinda to choose which group she thought was safe. Melinda wouldn't do it and sat down in the middle of the stage. Totally predictable move on her part. She probably didn't want to formally acknowledge that Jordin is her biggest competition.

Randy Jackson was the worst dressed of the night - wearing a pink t-shirt and a horrible hat that was too small for him, decorated with white skulls. Get a mirror, dawg.

So, Dial Idol did get it right! Blake Lewis is safe - but for how long?

I Hope Dial Idol Gets It Right

Dial Idol is is predicting that Sanjaya Malakar is the lowest vote getter from last night's American Idol, and Blake Lewis is the second lowest. They have Phil Stacey as "Safe" and Jordin Sparks coming second.

While I find Blake massively irritating, if he gets the boot tonight, I can only believe that the whole voting thing is rigged and that Idol producers are keeping Sanjaya around to milk the buzz and the ratings as long as possible.

Simon Cowell made it pretty clear last night in his comments that he's fed up with Sanjaya and his magical publicity machine and it's time for him to go. Simon probably would have really started to get brutal with his comments, but Ryan Seacrest stepped in and stopped Simon. Does Ryan know something about Sanjaya's fragile mental state that we don't know?

Finger's crossed, everyone!!

And I didn't even see this go down last night!!! I'm sure Simon is telling the truth, because he made his own comments about Virginia Tech at the end of the show!

Killing Me Softly With His Song

Sanjaya did it again, but this time with a red do-rag on his head. Sanjaya sang "Let's Give them Something To Talk About" and my husband wandered through the living room right about then and said "let's talk about sending you home!". Simon said it was "horrendous" and it was. Boring, flat and totally uninspiring. Hopefully that was Sanjaya's swan song. Bye bye.

Phil Stacey was a huge surprise this week, singing a Keith Urban song, and singing it well. I think country is his thing! Lakisha was average with "Jesus Take the Wheel", totally forgettable, and Melinda sounded great, by my mind started to wander in the middle of her song. The judges loved her.

Chris Richardson was just horrible, he sounded weak and out of tune, and I don't' think it matters what Blake does - I just can't stand him.

The best performance of the night was Jordin Sparks, who sang Broken Wing, and just did a fantastic job. Simon said with a performance like that she could definitely be the next American Idol. I think so too!

And Martina McBride was charming.

Hot Pants Scarnato Goes Home

Even the hot pants couldn't save Haley Scarnato this week on American Idol. Ryan Seacreast proclaimed that "after a record breaking 35 million votes", Haley was leaving the competition. She cried as she watched her Idol journey tape and then gave a horrible performance of "Turn the Beat Around". She seemed sort of relieved, but that could be my imagination.

Entertainment abounded in this filler full one hour results show. Somehow Fox persuaded Eva Longoria to be in the audience, along with Sharon Osborne, although neither of them spoke. There was an amusing little clip of Tony Bennett pretending to audition for Idol and Simon telling him he was the worst they've seen, Simon with some cute little girls in Africa, Ryan Seacrest asking the man on the street who should win, (Blake seems popular) and then Jennifer Lopez, wearing some weird kaftan like thing with splits in it, performing a song from her new album, surrounded by dancers wearing sunglasses and metallic jackets. It was an exhausting hour.

Sanjaya, of course, lives on another week. I can't imagine how he is going to survive "Country" week, but America seems to be in love with him. He's probably going to win the whole damn thing.

Next week's guest mentor/album plugger is someone who can actually sing - Martina McBride!!

Gina is Gone!!

I was really surprised that Gina Glocksen was eliminated on American Idol last night! I thought for sure that Phil was a gonner. Poor Gina, she cried on Ryan Seacrest's shoulder while they were showing her farewell video. I feel bad for her. She definitely wasn't at the bottom of the pack as far as I was concerned. Haley Scarnato was wearing another pair of hotpants, that made her legs look really long. Haley managed to squeeze out a few crocodile tears for Gina when she found out she was safe.

Apparently Tony Bennett couldn't stomach another evening on Idol, so he called in sick and Fox managed to talk Michael Buble into a "surprise" appearance, which by the way, was announced to all Michael Buble fans by email a couple of hours before the show.

In another astounding twist, Randy was wearing a shirt made from his grandmothers tablecloth and Paula was wearing the matching lace curtains. Simon didn't stray from his tight t-shirt wardrobe.

So, another week of Sanjaya hair, Sanjaya news, Sanjaya propaganda and Sanjaya lame singing. Sigh.

Universe of Sanjaya

Last nights Idol manged to reach whole new levels of boring. Tony Bennett was the guest "mentor" and all the Idols pretended to flip out meeting him, but I'm sure half of them had never heard of Tony.

Blake Lewis kicked off the night with his rendition of "Mack the Knife" and he was his usual irritating self. I don't know what it is about Blake, but everything he does irritates me and I don't know why the judges like him so much. He's trying too hard to be unique, but it just doesn't come naturally.

Melinda Doolittle delivered another great vocal performance, but I can't even remember what she sung. Her perfection is becoming boring, although I really like her.

Gina Glocksen is most improved every week. The judges didn't really like her vocals on "Smile", but I thought that she was good, and definitely has her own style.

Everyone else was blah! Even Lakisha, who insists on disregarding the excellent advice of the mentors, every single week. You can't tell me she knows more than Tony Bennett!!

And then of course we have Mr Sanjaya Malakar, dazzling in his ice cream white suit and slicked back hair, underwhelming us with "Cheek to Cheek". Dude cannot sing. At all. The judges have completely given up on even critiquing Sanjaya's singing. And when Simon said "Let's take a different tactic this week... incredible...", Sanjaya screamed out "Welcome to the Universe of Sanjaya". Is Sanjaya believing his own publicity? I doubt he will be gone this week. He'll probably make it to the final four at this stage.

If you are a huge Sanjaya fan check out the Sanjaya Fan Network . They have some great discussion boards going on everything Sanjaya, including his sister!! It's definitely worth a look if you are intersted in keeping Sanjaya on American Idol.

DialIdol.com is predicting that only Melinda Doolittle is safe and Haley Scarnato has the lowest number of votes!!

(www.SanjayaFanNetwork.com).

"Bye Bye, Curly"

Chris Sligh went home last night on American Idol. It was not unexpected after his woeful rendition of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic". Chris was "off tempo" the whole way through the song and just didn't look comfortable, and then admitted to the Judges that he was off. Admitting you were off is on par to forgetting the words, and that was his ticket home.

Haley Scarnato narrowly avoided the boot, as she was in the bottom three along with Chris and Phil Stacey. Even Ryan Seacreast couldn't remember Haley's name,calling her Stacey before going to break. It was all quite predictable,as Chris was the worst of the night, apart from Sanjaya, who it appears is never going home.

Also predictable was Ryan Seacreast walking on stage wearing a Sanjaya mohawk wig. Randy Jackson pretended to look gobsmacked, and Simon was trying to fake a bit of shock, and weirdly they didn't show Paula's reaction,(maybe because she was trying to find her arms in those enormous sleeves she had on) It was a lame gag. Sanjaya thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He's clearly enjoying his 15 minutes.

I See London, I See France....

.....and, Haley Scarnato, I can see your underpants!! Mia and I are convinced that the camera took a shot straight up Haley Scarnato's skirt last night, just as she started to butcher and leave for dead, Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors". Haley perched on the stairs in a very short skirt and as the camera panned in on her, you could see straight up her dress!! If I can get some photographic evidence of this I'll post it .

The production wizards at American Idol probably did it on purpose to try and grab some attention away from Sanjaya's Mowhawk, which was just a disaster in and of itself. I won't even talk about his singing. As Simon put it "there's nothing that we can say to you at this point". I have no idea what song Sanjaya performed. I couldn't stop looking at that My Little Pony 'do!

Everyone else was massively ordinary, except of course for Melinda Doolittle, who sung a Donna Summer song, but looked awful. She needs some help from Sussanah and Trinny in the "What Not to Wear" department. Lakisha also sang Donna Summer and was good, Gina was the best she's been so far and everyone else was forgettable. Phil should be voted off just for wearing a hat. If you choose to be bald, be proud.

Gwen Stefani seemed underwhelmed with all the "talent", but was very diplomatic and sweet. Gwen seems like a very nice person.

Friday Links!

Angelina Jolie plans on being a stay at home mother

50 things you need to know about Simon Cowell.

Clooney to adopt?

Mrs McDreamy looks fantstic as she takes her new babies for a walk

What the hell has happened to Tonya Harding?

Bye Bye Brandon

Yo! Wassup Daawg? How do you think you did? ???The results are in - and Brandon Rogers - forgetter of words, was sent packing from American Idol last night. I thought he looked relieved. Sadly, he will be but a faint memory by next Tuesday.

Diana Ross on the other hand was unforgettable last night, for all the wrong reasons. She should have been wearing her Spanx, the lighting made her dress look horrible on her, and I'm sure if Simon could have critiqued her he would have said " I don't mean to be rude, but you were shouting for most of the song.

Incredibly, Sanjaya Malakar survived to sing another week. I think everyone feels sorry for him. Ryan was wearing a fabulous purple tie, and Paula didn't speak.

Simon Trys to Out Ryan

Last night's American Idol will probably be remembered most for the exchange between Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, which I'm sure was totally scripted. Ryan was interviewing Melinda Doolittle before she sang and she said she didn't like her high heels. Then Ryan and Simon had the following exchange:

Ryan: Any advice on the high heels, Simon?

Simon: You should know Ryan. (audience screams on cue)

Ryan: Stay out of my closet.

Simon: Come out. (eye roll)

Audience and Melinda Doolittle freak out. Scripted. I'm sure of it. It was the eye roll that gave it away.

Other than that, it was a totally boring except for Melinda Doolittle, who made Paula cry with her rendition of "Home", Lakisha Jones and Jordin Sparks, who were all exceptional. All the men sucked, and the rest of the women were only OK, and Diana Ross' hair was bigger than Texas.

American Idol Gives Back

Last night on American Idol, Ryan Seacrest finally made the announcement that he's been threatening us with all week. I have to admit I was more shocked at this announcement, than the fact that Sanjaya made it through to the final twelve. In my pea brain I was convinced that Ryan was going to announce a nation wide song writing contest, and the winning song would be used in the finale of American Idol in May. I was wrong.



American Idol is teaming up with Charity Projects Entertainment Fund for a two night special American Idol Gives Back!

On 24 and 25 April, the Idol shows will raise awareness and money for underprivileged children in Africa and here in the US. Coca Cola, Ford and AT&T, are all going to give money for every vote called in and then on the results show, America will have a chance to give.

It's going to be quite the event on April 25. A crazy cast of characters will be performing, Annie Lennox, Bono, Borat, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Michale Buble and Il Divo. Wow. My head hurts.

This TV event is going to be huge. I'm sure that Idol Gives Back will raise gazillions of dollars. Now if they'd only give us back the hours of our life that we've spent listening to Sanjaya sing!

Antonella Is Out!

I guess some slutty photos and the most searched name on the web, isn't enough to get you to the big stage on American Idol. Antonella Barba did not get enough votes last night move into the top twelve on American Idol. And didn't she look shocked. I'm sure she thought that she'd get through on her good looks and massive exposure - all puns intended. I'm still not entirely convinced she didn't leak some of those photos herself, or at least encouraged someone else to leak them for her.

Antonella now has a couple of options: 1. Work for Joe Francis on Girls Gone Wild or 2. take an offer from SugarDVD the largest renter of adult entertainment! Considering all the great decisions she's made so far in her life, I'm sure she'll choose wisely.

There were two other shockers last night, Sabrina and Sundance both went home, and Sanjaya and Haley were voted in. The shocking part is that Sabrina and Sundance can actually sing and Sanjaya and Haley can't. As Simon said, people must have been watching "with the volume turned down".


To see the new American Idol Top 12 click here