Brooke talks about her forgotten lyrics. Carly is a little annoyed when Larry brings up her label deal. She thinks the early press may have hurt her. Cook speaks up to defend Carly. He says she got a bum rap. “The show is for unfound talent, just because you have a record, that shouldn’t disqualify you in the public eye, he says. Brooke agrees. Carly insists that the large figure cited in the Wall Street Journal article about her failed deal is inaccurate. Really, Carly, just answer the questions about your record deal, don’t be pissy about it. Own your own shit. Larry asks her dumb questions about her tattoos.
Larry puts the gang in stitches as he introduces Ramiele and Chikezie for the next segment and totally mangles their names.
Brooke White and Carly Smithson join the Top 4 on Larry King Live after the Jump…
Related Posts
OK, maybe that is just his style and i’m not used to Larry King, or something….but is he the most awkward interviewer EVER? Gah, what weird and dorky questions…..plus his affect is just odd! I was uncomfortable watching it, I can’t imagine how they must have felt…..”Jason, what do you thing of Brooke?”….I mean what’s he gonna say, “well, personally, I think she smells like cabbage!”, seriously!
I really dislike Carly. Still making excuses. Ridiculous. I’ll say no more.
Carly just doesn’t get it. Despite her enormous talent, America didn’t like her. It wasn’t because of her earlier record deal. Cook had a record out before also. For me, I never felt a connection to her, and her desperation to succeed was unappealing. I wish she would stop making excuses and accept the truth.
I agree. Too many excuses.
IKR?
Anyway, love this interview… Brooke looks amazing with the straight hair. Love the clothes too. Girl knows how to dress.
in all fairness, his was self-produced and self-released. not really the same as carly’s major-label deal.
i actually adore carly, and i thought it was pretty sweet that he defended her.
Exactly! Every time she goes out for interviews, she has these excuses on why she was eliminated. Either it’s “coz the girls are voting and they like the boys” or “coz the media brought up my past record deal.”
Newsflash: none of the above. America didn’t love you enough, that’s it.
Does Carly ever stop whining and making excuses? She is definately my bathroom break at the AI concert.
Sorry, I’ve caught her in too many embellishments to like her. She said on Ellen that she didn’t have much experience being on stage. Phooey! If you read her bio, she’s a pro on that stage. She just doesn’t have a clue that America saw through her facade. And, her screeching vocals didn’t help either.
AWWWW, David C was such a sweetie defending his friend. I had the chance to meet Carly in person and she’s drop dead gorgeous. She has the most piercing blue eyes and her skin is flawless; arrrgh, lucky girl. The camera doesn’t do her justice.
Forgot to mention, Carly is also very down to earth and sweet in person.
Carly soared on the group songs. Wed nite during that Donna Summer number when Amanda numbled the lyrics, Carly just grabbed that vocal, moved to the front of the stage and owned that song.
During Idol she never had that one great performance, but she should have sang a stripped down version of ‘The Letter.’ That would have worked.
The contestants who last are the ones who understand that the competition is so much more than just good singing. Contestants HAVE to make a connection with the viewing audience, or forget it. Cook knew he was having trouble connecting, he worked on it and his popularity began to soar. Jason and Archie seemed to know instinctively how to connect. Brooke had a sweet vulnerability that viewers responded to.
Carly came off as shrill and self-absorbed on the Idol stage. That’s what killed her, along with some lousy song choices and a lack of musical identity. I’d say Michael Johns had an aloof air on camera that hurt him. He also didn’t define his musical identity on the show and picked some lousy songs.
So yeah, stop yer sobbing, girl
Wow, MJ. You said it better than I could have. Yes, she is very pretty, and, may be down to earth, but, she is just so clueless.
Layoff of Carly! MJ, she wasn’t “sobbing”, I didn’t pick that up….she was ‘explaining’ and it made perfect sense. That contract figure of $2Mil was out of this world….and there is no way a company would throw that kind of money at an artist and not get it back someway. It was probably more like $1mil…but you know the media — overhyped!
But you make good points about coming across on TV….maybe that’s why Syesha got to stay so long? I don’t know. The AI audience is an “older” audience than the producers want….they’re the ones who vote and take their family to the concerts….they know what they like.
I agree. Amanda looked like she was at a death sentence, and Carly looked thrilled to be there. I think seeing her as arrogant, much like preferring one contestant over another, is subjective. I never thought she came across as arrogant. I thought she came across as someone who really wanted to do what she was doing, and was trying as hard as she could. She mentioned in the interview that her friends told her what everyone was saying. I know from this blog, that many people had formed a negative opinion of her before they even saw her. So she was fighting an uphill battle and probably knew it. That to me is why she came off as maybe trying too hard. But arrogant? I don’t see that. Of course, I also don’t see Michael as arrogant, or Jason as a pothead or any of the other things these kids have been labeled. LOL I really loved this season and am so bummed they’re not coming to AL this year.
Carly, Carly, Carly..you just don’t get it.
I’ve been watching all these interviews this morning and I’ve just gotten to this one, and I just wanted to shake my head. It isn’t about your record deal. It isn’t about the fact that you are from Ireland. It isn’t the fact that you had little experience on the stage(yeah right).
I thought she was actually great on the Finale, and I was never a Carly fan.
But dammit, that girl has an excuse for EVERYTHING!
The formula is simple: Sing well, sing to your fans, make a connection.
She could only do the sing well part, and only some of the the time at that.
She never won me over because she never cared more about Simon, ALWAYS.
Her goal was to schmooze the people who could get her a career again, not the people who would buy her albums.
Until she figures it out she will NEVER be successful. Period.
I didn’t mean that literally. I was using the name of a pop song as a metaphor…
Oh, nevermind.
Poor Carly.
She just doesn’t understand that the backbone of this show is fan bases. You garner that through audience connection. Even singing her most beautiful song IMO, “Here You Come Again”, she seemed emotionally detached. It’s very interesting, but you can’t underestimate the viewing listening audience. They’ll overrule the judges when necessary. DC’s win is a testament to that.
Really, all she has to say is that she had a record deal that didn’t work out. End of story. Her desperation was always the complete turnoff for me. And, what kinds of friends does she have, who would call her and tell her every bad thing they read about her online? Not good friends at all.
Maybe now that the show is over, she’ll lose the desperate edge. She’s out there now, and she’s opened the door to every criticism imaginable. Get ready!
One of Carly’s problems on the show was that she was trying too hard, and yes, appeared desperate at times. I agree, it always seemed as though she was pandering to the judges, not to the viewers. And that’s why she got the ax.
I really want to like Carly and Michael but I’m starting to get a bit annoyed by them. If either of the Davids would have been eliminated earlier I don’t think they would have made excuses. Also Syesha and Jason are not complaining even though they got some unfair treatment.
Personally, I think being a foreigner did matter to many viewers. I know I didn’t like it much. I think the American Idol should be an American. Carly alluded to the fact that there had been other foreign people on the show. Who was she talking about? She was about to give a name and then didn’t. The first time she tried out was Season 5, so I wonder if she was going to say Anthony Fedorov from Season 4. He certainly received a lot of flack online for being born in the Ukraine. However, the big difference is that he and his family immigrated to the U.S. and became citizens (just as all our ancestors did). Instead of spending the past 2 years working on getting a visa so that she could be on American Idol, she could have worked on becoming a U.S. citizen. She’s certainly been living here long enough, and Ireland allows dual citizenship.
Okay - I made a post - then my computer locked up - so I’ll be more concise this time:
Larry King: total idiot who should learn how to pronounce his guest’s names BEFORE airtime. It’s not like he doesn’t have the staff to find out for him. It’s hard to watch another human being actively suck at their job night after night on national tv. His questions are lame.
Brooke: Too adorable for words.
Carly: Yeah, she’s the mayor of excuse village, but she doesn’t bother me. It was noble of Cookie to defend her and just adorable that Archie called her his “mama”. Also - I’m thinking if you cannot even get a Visa to get into the US, you can’t really go about becoming a citizen. Plus, it’s not a requirement for the contest, so it’s not an issue for me personally.
Brooke is such a sport. How many times has she been asked about this messing up the lyrics thing? Countless! Still, she answers without any hint of annoyance. Carly’s been asked about her previous deal much lesser times than Brooke’s been asked about her mess-up and she’s like “oh my God, you’re asking this question again.”
Carly is extremely talented but extremely fake! She tries so hard but nobody’s buying the “nice ink-laden Irish lass” routine. Carly: Just be the diva bitch you really are! America will love you for it . Do that; and you Will blow our minds.
I’m not as offended by Carly as other people. I don’t care that she’s Irish, or that she had a record deal, or that she didn’t connect with the audience.
I just hate the way she sings.
FAKE?!!! How can you call someone fake if you don’t know the person? The people around her who know her best say she’s a very caring person but most importantly a good person. The other contestants think very highly of her; even Brooke who is the complete opposite of her loves her and thinks her tattoos are beautiful. David C loves her to death and Michael J as well. I think all the finalists this year are amazing singers and performers and I have no doubt that they’re going to dominate the music industry a year or two from now. Good luck to them all.
Carly grew on me. Michael Johns grew on me. Archie grew on me. I ended up liking them all. Dang, I’m easy! LOL
My point in that thread-killing post up there is that it seems to me the initial dislike of (or disinterestedness or indifference towards) a contestant can be overcome. That’s what happened (for me) in the cases of Carly and Michael, at least. :)
Purplesmile. I hear you. It’s happened to some for Archie. Because he was pimped so hard early on many closed their ears to him. After the show he seems to be appreciated more.
Carly needs to find a pc answer to her BIG FLOP and move on. The thing is she probably doesn’t get what happened either. She doesn’t realize that sometimes things just flop. No excuses. Maybe she just needs to stfu and sing.
The quote you used above is true though. I remember defending her before I heard her sing because people were dissing her before she sang. She wore that like an albatross around her neck. I sorta understand the defensiveness in retrospect. She was damned from the start. She had that to deal with and never truly knowing her audience torpedoed her. I like her as a singer, and her personality is fetching until she talks about the FLOP. It probably still hurts.
ETA: I commented first and then went back and watched. Did I miss something? This was not anywhere near as bad as I thought it was. Is there more?
Lets just say this particular interview is just a continuation of the attitude she’s displayed throughout the season. She’s defensive at best, and a dissembler at worst when she talks about her botched major label contract, or the reasons why she left at 6. Like I said in my post, she needs to own her own shit.
I hated Kellie Pickler on the show. I began warming up to her when after she was eliminated, also at 6, she took responsibility for what happened to her. She didn’t walk off the show with a giant chip on her shoulder. Carly might want to watch some of Kellie’s post-boot interviews for some pointers.
Exactly. I remember when she claimed her first album didn’t sell because it was released on or around 9/11. Someone here (I think Kirsten) researched that and debunked it as completely false. I’ve never really gotten over that, and it did taint my feelings towards her on the show. Why can’t she just admit she had an opportunity and it didn’t work out? Why does she have to constantly say that “everybody” else has had records (not true). Why does she have to blame her 6th place finish on the fact that she’s female? Earth to Carly… two other females finished ahead of you. She’s just full of excuses and it annoys me. She may have done better on the show if she had brought anything authentic to her performances.
Thanks for clearing that up. I expected to see something totally different. She just needs to own up to it. Frankly it’s not a big deal and if she had played it better it might have garnered her a bit of sympathy. I am a fan so I am gonna give her a bit of leeway. Pickler wrote the book on how to exit idol gracefully. On that I agree. She’s my baby….it’s a long story, but I have alot of respect for her.
Another one on Carly’s long list of excuses. She also lied on AI about why she lost her record deal (saying her record company imploded when she was dropped long before that)… I never got over that either. She just keeps making too many lies and excuses for me to actually respect her.
When I first heard about Carly and her previous contract, I really didn’t form an opinion and actually expected to be blown away by her. But I wasn’t. I didn’t like her poor me, I was thrown aside by this industry and I work harder than anyone else in the world and I deserve to be famous. She’s such a “victim”. Whoever said that she should just answer “yes, had the contract and it didn’t work out” was right on. If she had done what she was supposed to do on the show, she would have stayed longer no matter what kind of press she got at the beginning. Carly’s problem is that she just can’t see that the problem is with her and her performing skills. Looking like you want to kill someone while performing is not going to win fans. lol
The fact that Carly has more than once said that the female audience votes for the guys and this year it was really hard for the girls really gets on my nerves. Does she think that the show had a male audience in previous years and that’s why the girls won? It’s a stupid excuse and disrespectful to the guys.
“The fact that Carly has more than once said that the female audience votes for the guys and this year it was really hard for the girls really gets on my nerves.”
As a guy I understand her point on this. I think there were a few performances from certain men that were given a pass on because they were dreamy looking guys and girls wanted to keep them in the show for eye candy.
Also as for her having to claim a musical identity. I always thought she had one. She was the belter of the season with the strong intense voice and at least to me as a fan that’s all she needed to do and she did it well. I personally don’t need someone to have to stick to a specific style of singing just so they can prove that they have a single musical identity due to the entire concept of the show and the different theme nights go against that unless a contestant wants to chang up the song and at least to me I always thought thought that was kind of cheating.
I understand in recent years some of the sngers like David Cook find songs and will style them to fit them but I don’t always see everyone having to do that since Kelly, Clay, Vonzell, Jordin did well by adapting to certain theme nights instead of adapting the song to fit their style.
The way Carly has handled her industry history has turned me off. Her status as a foreigner was something I noted but it didn’t really seem to be a huge issue, although I am sure it was for others. Much more importantly, her presence when she sings turns me off.
You’re absolutely right, Judy. She always looks angry no matter what type of song she is singing. She screeches, yells and hurts my ears. Not something I would go out of my way to prolong by voting for her or buying her forthcoming product, if there is one. She may be the sweetest, most loving girl in the world, but it doesn’t come across on stage or in her voice for me. Since I don’t expect to ever meet her personally, what happens on stage and when she sings is all I really care about.
And definitely, she should stop complaining, stop lying, own her past and move on.
I don’t really care all that much about what Carly says even though I agree that she should shut up about the girls having it tougher. I still think she’s the best singer of the girls.
Brooke may be doing okay in the post-boot interviews but I still haven’t forgiven her for her constant crying and talking over the judges during the season.
But there have been four female winners so I don’t see it as a legitimate reason. The guys could have said that the majority of the winners have been women so it’s harder for men to win. But according to Carly this year it was harder for the girls.
“But there have been four female winners so I don’t see it as a legitimate reason. The guys could have said that the majority of the winners have been women so it’s harder for men to win.”
I remember her comment being directed as toward this season compared to past seasons of Idol. I still think that a good looking guy regardless of talent has a better chance of advancing then a girl with talent due to the cute factor. I remember speaking to several people thiis season who could only bring up Luke/MJ/Jason/David’s performances with the comment that they were dreamy/cute so forth and then talk about their actual performance. However using a past season analogy I still remember the Roman brothers from season three who were horrible but according to Ryan got thousands of votes the night they performed and I still got a lot of votes.
But how are the past female winners supposed to be explained? Does Carly think that AI had a primarily male audience before this year and that’s why there have only been 2 male winners and 4 female. And the 2 males who won are not even goodlooking or hot by normal standards.
Bottomline is she should stop saying that the “boys have it really easy this year”… even if you believe that, it is disrespectful to their talent and hard work.
Okay I went back and saw Carly’s original quote from this site which I included below and I don’t see how she is disrespecting the boy’s talent in any way. She acknowledges their talent but also mentions that they are adorable and have charmed there way something I agree with. I thought that Jason got by many a night with his goofy grin and smile after a performance and Archuleta with his Ah shucks and I remember many female friends going crazy with Cooks look into the camera after saying that he wasn’t dating anyone. It’s not taking anything away from their singing or performing talent when you factor in charm and personality into it. I still remember the days when people kept John Stevens in the competition because they thought he was sweeter then Jennifer Hudson who many viewed as being a major diva who had attitude and didn’t deserve to be there.
“women vote for this show, and they vote for the boys. The boys are adorable, and I definitely feel that the girls had more of a struggle this year with trying to get the popularity vote. I think the boys are definitely charming the females a lot. And they’re very talented too — everyone’s very talented — but I think it was definitely a bit of a struggle for the ladies.”
As for the past female winners as someone who has been addicted to Idol since the get go I think that the past ladies who have won Idol have all been able to connect with the primary female voting public in a non threatening way to be able to win. I remember Kelly Clarkson had this talent to be able to look humble after she was finished singing that I think endured her to the public, when Fantasia realized that her personality might be viewed as extreme to some changed it and was able to win over a fan base, Carrie had a country charm to her that appealed to voters and Jordin had a young girls likeability that worked in her favor. I think that Carly has an amazing voice that should have gotten her further but I also believe that a boy with dreamy looks and lots of charm and a serviceable voice can generally outlast a girl with powerful vocals who might be lacking in the personality department.
The point is, even if there is some truth to her statement, she shoudn’t say it out loud. If I were one of the male finalists and someone was insinuating that I only got in as far as I did because of my charm and looks and not because of my talent, I would be insulted.
Well, that’s Carly’s tough luck. Obviously, this is not just a talent (which is subjective, anyway) show. I can understand where she may be coming from, but I agree with most she shouldn’t be whining about it so much.
” I remember speaking to several people thiis season who could only bring up Luke/MJ/Jason/David’s performances with the comment that they were dreamy/cute so forth and then talk about their actual performance.”
Thats just the nature of the beast - but even the most gorgeous male or female cannot get by on good looks alone. If you happen to be blessed with that, the door does open up a little bit easier for you. But once in that door you have to continue to prove yourself and a few of those guys did just that and will have the fans they have forever because of it or in spite of it. Carly is starting to sound like a whole truckload of sour grapes. It is what it is and not because she just happened to be female
What’s the difference between a fan saying it and one of your peers? A review is a review regardless of where it comes from. I used to worry what would get be cast in something over someone else and regardless if it was my look for the role or if it was my actual talent (which of course is subjective) but in the end it didn’t matter as long as I got it over the other person. She made a comment that they had a lot of talent and charm in order to advance over her I don’t think she was being insulting to them just rationalizing why she wasn’t chosen to be the American Idol.
I think there’s a difference in saying it three months down the road. At this point all the talk show hosts get to interview all the Idols and ask them what went wrong, why they didn’t….etc.etc. so by bringing this up now at least to me isn’t sour grapes. If she randomly runs up to people on the street telling them this then yes sour grapes all the way.
Umm, it’s different coz she’s on national TV? Coz whatever she says is written on an article for millions of people to read? And it’s different because she was a part of the competition which makes all these statements appear as sourgraping.
Fans are not trying to win over fans…Carly is, or should be, I would think, so she has to be a little bit more careful not to turn people off. If she goes on like that, she won’t be endearing herself to those who might otherwise learn to like her. (For the record, I do like her. ;D)