I’ve had a busy week, peeps. I apologize, I’m a little behind. I’ve got a bunch of updates to post on the Season 6 contestants who have appeared in this week’s audition rounds. I’ll probably spend the rest of the weekend posting all my info. This post will probably be updated at least once or twice.
Found this handy resource at Rollingstone.com. This blog is tracking the MySpace pages of all contestants who have been featured on Idol so far. Here’s your Minneapolis auditioners and your Seattle auditioners. Very handy. For instance, you’ve got Steven Thoen, Nicholas Zitzmann and Blake Lewis (methinks we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Blake, I hear he had a very good week)
Your 15 Minutes Have Begun
Kenneth Briggs and Jonathan Jayne (right) will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. Oh boy. While Kenneth is rather upset that Simon made fun of his looks (Simon said he looked like a “bush monkey”), Jonathan is thrilled with his new-found celebrity, and can’t understand the backlash to his appearance. Well, the fact that he can’t understand it may be the point…
Meanwhile, Steven “Red” Thoen and his Mom are also angry over Steven’s portrayal:
Steven Thoen, 28, said the Fox television show’s producers were disrespectful and unfair to him. His mother, June Lorimor of Superior, said that the show took advantage of Thoen’s mild mental retardation and made him a laughingstock.
Contestants with mental disabilities should be screened out of the process PERIOD, as far as I’m concerned.
First Idol Scandal of the Season
And, that didn’t take long, did it peeps? TMZ.com has dug up the arrest record of Seattle auditioner Thomas Daniels. According to TMZ, in in 2004, Thomas was convicted of DUI in Clackamas, OR, pled guilty and was sentenced to a one-year alcohol diversion program and a $680 fine. After the completing his DUI sentence, the incident was wiped from his record.
In December 2005, Thomas was arrested again–for hit and run. He failed to appear in court for the arraignment and was subsequently rearrested. Thomas says both incidents are the result of being “young and dumb”. It’s not clear whether Thomas disclosed his arrest record to Idol producers.
If he didn’t disclose his record to the producers, and managed to advance to the Top 24 on Monday (it’s possible, Thomas is a very good singer) I would say his Idol career is now toast.
More Season 6 Contestants
Nicholas Zitzmann (the Utah software engineer whose performance of “Unchained Melody” never seemed to end) says his “…biggest regret is I chose the wrong song…I had no idea going into this that the song was Simon’s favorite song (Ryan Seacrest told me right before I stepped into the room). If I had to do it over again, I would have probably performed a comedy number instead and tried to make the judges laugh.” Nicholas, I think they were laughing at you anyway.
Self-professed “Crack Baby” Denise Jackson who auditioned in Minneapolis is profiled here. Denise says, “There’s a lot of controversy about what I said on ‘American Idol.’ Some people asked me, ‘Why would you say that?’…It’s the truth. I’m not ashamed of what I am. I’m a young lady.” And check this out, according to the article:
Jackson, who goes to La Follette High School in Madison, has spent a chunk of her time with TV camera crews and answering phone calls about her success after being plucked from a pool of more than 18,000 who auditioned. The show aired Tuesday in front of 30 million viewers, and Jackson will return to Los Angeles on Feb. 14 for the semifinals.
Oh really? Did this newspaper just reveal Denise Jackson’s Top 24 status? Hmmm….
One more: Giantess (just kidding!) Anna Kearns’ fellow Wild Wings employees are interviewed here. They had no idea Anna had done so well in the competition. Anna had auditioned for Texoma’s Idol, television station KJTL Fox 18’s local competition, but didn’t win. She decided to audition on her own anyway.
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Bravo MJ, I agree wholeheartedly that those with mental disabilities should be screened from the process,period. They are like children,so trusting and innocent. The sad thing is, why do their friends and families not discourage them in the first place.
I will be so happy when the show gets down to the final 24 and this throwing the Christians to the lions stuff ends. How mny more weeks is that, hopefully only a few.
MJ thanks for the info on the one singer I liked. Other than the pretty sister but that because she’s pretty. As a sage Soul Patroller once said(well more than once)”THUD” for her.
He did a fine job on Amos Lee’s song. Its nice to hear a very good newer song sung on idol. I guess I won’t have to become a Thomaholic this year.
MJ,
Trista (the lion) was interviewed by local radio this week. She is hilarious! GREAT sense of humor. My opinion of her completely changed. She did what she did on purpose to encourage her sister (who apparently can sing better than she can) to tryout in another city. She’s been making that lion sound since childhood and she taught the hosts how to make it. I’ve heard David Letterman wants to have her on his show. She said she’s had over 40 radio interviews so far.
FWIW- that Death by Camera site doesn’t deserve any promotion…just my opinion.
Too bad about that Thomas Daniels guy. I liked his singing. Oh, well.
Impossible about Denise…Well, it’s possible, but Idol Maniac has her down as an Eliminated Hollywood Contestant.
I love this inside stuff, collected all in one place, mj. You make for a very lazy internet surfer in me, but it is cool to catch it all here.
I’m not sure why there is concern about Thomas’ DUI. If he disclosed it to producers, he should be fine. I don’t think it would prevent him from progressing in the competition. He made a mistake and owned up to it. I’d still vote for him and will hopefully have the chance to.
MJ- according to idolforums, Tom Lowe auditioned in Seattle, WA. Did the producers choose not to show his audition?!? I was actually looking forward to it…
About Denise and the media’s reliability:
If you ever happen to have personal knowledge of cetain subject matter, you will find out quickly that the so-called mainstream media is not very reliable. I hope they are wrong in this case because I was far from impressed.