Idol Headlines for 04/26/09
‘Idolatry’: Farewell to Lil and Anoop! But how come no one’s voting for Allison?
Before you press play on this week’s Idolatry, a poem:
Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai and Fox join forces for solar power
On Friday morning in an overcast Los Angeles, “American Idol” Season 8 finalists Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds, fresh from their double elimination, joined City Council President Eric Garcetti and Department of Water and Power General Manager H. David Nahai, among other key players, for a special ceremony.
Fox Broadcasting teamed with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and E-Village Solar and donated a solar electric system to Camino Nuevo Charter Academy’s high school campus after seeing how well the 1.36-kilowatt system worked to power the “Idol” 2008 finale’s red carpet. The Department of Water and Power provided support, and hopes to continue similar programs among other schools.
More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…
Week 15 of Ranking the Field: Best of “American Idol”
This is my power ranking of the remaining contestants in Season 8 of “American Idol,” and it will be updated every week. If you disagree with my ranking, by all means use the comments area to share your own.
This is my perception of the a given singer’s potential to win the competition. It’s not my personal ranking.
So it boils down to this: Can anyone catch Adam Lambert? The cheers are deafening when he hits the stage each week. And if he does win, do you think he can be commercially successful? I’m still a little not so sure.
Five idols stayin’ alive
How was disco night less cheesy than movie song night?
Most of us knew it would be Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai going home, though. Matt Giraud had momentum coming off the judges’ save and made a reasonably smart song choice, and Danny Gokey simply has too big of a fan base to go home unless he farts on stage and forgets the lyrics.
Trying to end runovers, ‘American Idol’ shortchanged viewers
“American Idol” producers have tried to cut the running time of the show in recent weeks, but what they’ve ended up doing is cutting the guts out of the competition.
First they shortened the judges’ comments, and this week they eliminated the pre-performance clips of the contestants.
But why go for the innards when there’s so much fluff to be skimmed off the top?
Fans pack TU center for Cook performance
David Cook’s return to Tulsa was a venue-shaking, light bulb-shattering family affair.
The city’s favorite bartender-turned-”American Idol” played a sold-out show at University of Tulsa’s Allen Chapman Activity Center on Saturday night, his first local show since releasing his self-titled album last year.
The crowd was packed with fans, friends and family members of Cook’s band à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ the very same bandmates who brought him to Tulsa.
Rep: Jennifer Hudson Not Pregnant
Despite a host of rumors on the Internet, Jennifer Hudson is not pregnant, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
Earlier this week, MediaTakeOut.com was first to claim that the Oscar and Grammy winner was pregnant with her first child with fiance David Otunga. A host of sites and publications reported the news, but a rep for the star told the Chicago Sun Times this is not the case.
à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Jennifer is not pregnant,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ the singerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s rep, Lisa Kasteler, said in an E-mail to the paper.
Jennifer Hudson makes homecoming concert a family affair
The Englewood home where Jennifer Hudson grew up is eight miles from the Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place. But the journey from the former to Saturday night’s performance at the latter is nothing short of epic.
The Chicago stop wasn’t your average show on Hudson’s tour. How could it be?
Jennifer Hudsonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s star shines here
The Fox Theatre may need another renovation after Jennifer Hudson’s performance there Thursday night. Her roof-rattling, paint-peeling vocals were more than enough to bring walls tumbling down. Hudson accomplished what few artists can on a debut tour, displaying her star power and holding the crowd’s attention.
There was no hint that this Oscar and Grammy winner with the big, bold and beautiful voice actually started out as an “American Idol” loser.
Broadway Blog – Rock of Ages: If You’ve Never Heard It, It’s New To You
I enjoyed quite a lot of Rock of Ages; even though the songs don’t carry the same nostalgic appeal for me as it does for its target audience. (Though I will admit a quick mention of Reunite on ice did bring back memories.) Sure, it would have been better off as a ninety-minute intermissionless show, as the production really starts losing steam early in Act II (Hint: When an author suddenly starts going Pirandello in the second half it usually means he’s run out of ideas.), but much of it is good, stupid, noisy fun that doesn’t take itself as anything more than good, stupid, noisy fun.
Susan Boyle niche to hit the U.S.?
Get ready for reality TV’s “Susan Boyle effect.”
As the unlikely “Britain’s Got Talent” contestant makes her way through the pop culture zeitgeist, exec producer Simon Cowell — speaking to reporters Friday — said the frenzy over Boyle may open the door for less photo-ready, well-groomed people to at least show up for talent auditions.
That includes NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which may be poised to benefit from all the attention its U.K. sister has gotten in recent days.
“I’m thinking we should hold maybe two more open auditions off the back of Susan Boyle,” Cowell said. “Because the awareness is higher. (You’ll now get) somebody who says, ‘I think I am talented, and I don’t think people will judge me for the way I look.”
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121 Responses to “Idol Headlines for 04/26/09”
Weren’t Anwar and David H as openly gay as Adam? None of them brought it up on the show, but neither has Adam.
I think Adam is a lot more talented, so perhaps that’s the difference.
ETA:
Anwar had a personal ad that was revealed. David H had pictures stripping in a gay club. Adam has pictures kissing another guy. I’m not sure how these situations are any different.
Well, they might not have been able to find another contestant as talented as Adam, but they certainly could have had a few openly gay contestants in the top 5/10/12 before. I totally respect that people might not want to come out of the closet and some might not have been considered being open a “vote winner”, but The Powers that Be at Idol cast these shows. Many a talented singer gets nowhere near the voting rounds because they don’t fit the desired arc for the season. AI chose not to cast an openly gay person (and mock gay people openly with badly scripted jokes between Ryan and Simon).
There were people who were suspected to be gay and people who later confirmed they were gay (e.g. Clay, RJ, Anwar and pink-haired-girl-who-got-screwed-by-the-scripted-Ryan-is-a-monkey-joke).
Kristen,
I think that one kid (can’t remember his name- Nathan??) in the top 24 was gay.
For Kris and Danny who are Christians:
A Hindu, a Jew and an evangelical Christian were travelling together when they were overcome with fatigue. They stopped at a farmhouse and asked for lodging, but the farmer said he only had room for two. One of them would have to spend the night in the barn.
“I’ll go,” said the Hindu, and off he went. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the back door. There stood the Hindu, exclaiming, “There’s a cow in there, and cows are sacred in my religion. It would be impossible for me to sleep in the same room as a cow.”
The farmer then asked which of the other two would volunteer to sleep in the barn. “I’ll go,” said the Jew, and off he went. A few minutes later there was a knock at the back door. It was the Jew. “There’s a pig in that barn. It wouldn’t be kosher for me to sleep there. I cannot do it!”
“Oh, all right,” said the evangelical Christian. “I’ll go,” and off he went.
A few moments later there was a knock on the door. It was the pig and the cow.
Since it is apparently OK to mock religions here.
The top 36 seemed to have a fair share of “seemingly” gay contestants. And, guess what, it didn’t affect the way I voted nor did I even care. And “being gay” is the farthest thing from “big news” in this day and age. My gosh, a very outspoken gay contestant won Survivor a few cycles ago (and wasn’t he a Mormon from Utah) and I don’t remember anyone making an issue about it in the online media or print media (or was it such a non-factor to me that I never noticed).
Adam is getting the attention he deserves because ,IMHO, he is talented, he has a unique personal and singing style, he mixes up his song choices and performances, he works very hard, he has many supportive friends, he is charming and witty and kind and he is good looking and has a smile to die for.
Yes, but that was this year. Unless there is another Nate I’m forgetting (which is entirely possible).
And that’s exactly as it should be. As Sally Ride said, she thought woman would have attained equality when nobody cared to point out that some woman was the first person to do something. People should vote for whatever criteria suits them (most entertaining, funniest if they should win, best glory notes, best riffer, best arranger, largest range, best back story, contestant most like them, whatever) and not care about making some sort of point.
Adam is certainly all those things and is very deserving of front-runner buzz. This is not an anti-Adam thing AT all.
I just question all the “OMG Can a Gay Person Win Idol?” headlines (really, should this be “OMG” news in today’s day and age? We aren’t in the Spanish Inquisition era, now are we?) and the dearth of qualified openly gay contestants in the past. If this was the first year that Idol had found a talented African-American contestant to compete, do you think they should be congratulated for finally finding one? Or questioned as to their motives for not “casting” talented African-Americans previously?
I think Idol has a banquet of contestants to choose from. They have complete control of the backstory arcs they want. I think it’s fishy that they didn’t cast a top-contender, openly gay contestant before. I guess it is possible that the Adam is the only talented openly gay person to walk in Idol’s door (they only get 50K contestants a year applying) whilst the casting directors for TAR, Survivor and SYTYCD were inundated with athletic, clever, talented and interesting openly gay contestants so it was easy for them.
Of course, I also live on the knoll, so there may be nothing to this. Be clear, I’m not pushing for quotas, but the darn show is cast so it’s already about quotas. I’ll applaud Adam and his talent. I’m not going to applaud TPTB at Idol for finally joining the human race.
edit: I said DROP IT.
Well, first of all, a religion is a set of beliefs, whereas race is kind of a genetic thing, so not really the same thing. Making the easy joke about a Catholic priest being a child molestor is a whole different ballgame than making some kind of racist joke.
And, I wouldn’t call it ignorance. Maybe mean-spiritedness? I often make jokes about my own religion, something of which I am decidedly not ignorant. There are thousands of comedians in the world who still make tons of jokes about the things that are now politically incorrect (just ask a Scientologist) and plenty of people still laugh. Some people just have different senses of humor.
Also, at this point, I don’t think all that many of us are too ignorant about the Mormon religion, since a whole bunch of them sure do seem to turn up on Reality TV. We’ve learned a lot about them in the last few years.
Nick and Melody? Or are you thinking Travis from Season 2 (for runner-up, that is — I read somewhere that Nick is gay, but not sure where)?
ETA: Not that it matters, really. I am just a SYTYCD junkie and was wondering if you meant S1 or S2.
Oops! LOL. Sorry, I was thinking about Blake and forgot he got booted the week before the finale (in a total shock boot. That guy is amazing and should have won, IMO of course. It’s stunning what those dancers can do on that show. I’d be in traction for six months).
Oh, yes. Blake. He was definitely amazing and started the trend of my faves going out right before the finale. Anyway, I have gone off-topic.
LOL, just a few hours ago, on this blog in another thread, I was lamenting the fact that my favorites on SYTYCD all go out second. Lot’s of off-topic posts related to that show today. Perhaps we’re just anxious for it to return!
I’m following Nigel on twitter and he posts little updates. They are in Vegas now for auditions. It’s sooo much more entertaining for me than DWTS. Nigel is such a dance geek, and I think that’s part of why the show is so good.
I believe that Adam is the first openly gay – uber talented man on American Idol which is partly why he was cast.
As “Billboard” on TWOP somewhat stated on the knoll awhile ago, TPTB cast a bunch of gay men to go to Hollywood this year that got lots of air time. Most of them were the more the flaming “Jack” types (ie, Nate) to Adam’s hot looking manly “Will” from the TV show “Will & Grace”.
They did this so the perception of Adam will be more postive in mainstream eyes. (I wish I could remember exactly what Billboard said but basically, it made perfect sense to me.)
Perhaps this is because of the new gay producer onboard now?
I also remember from Season 4 when cutie Mario Vasquez who had such a great voice and was TCO in my eyes, suddenly dropped out when he made the Top 12, supposedly because photos and rumours about him being gay were being circulated and he was not comfortable about it. Supposedly, he dropped out because of “personal reasons” and something about not liking the AI contract.
In the beginning, American Idol ideal is someone that appeals to most Americans since the people vote them in. TPTB will do everything to make sure that their ideal criteria is met. Kelly was the perfect first Idol!
I’m worried about Adam’s chances of winning only because I could not believe that Prop 8 (vote YES if you were against gay marriage) passed last year.
I was under the impression that this generation of Californians were more openminded and were colorblind and more accepting of the gay lifestyle and would want them to marry. There was hardly any negative campaigning against gay marriage and it looked like most people were voting NO and it was not going to be passed and gays would continue to legally marry.
I couldn’t believe the week before the election, there were loads of church people protesting and picketing city streets and TV/phones being bombarded against gay marriage. Supposedly, religions from other states poured $$ into the anti-gay marriage campaign and to my disbelief, it worked and Prop 8 passed, so no more gay marriage.
I think people know it is not PC to say you’re against the gay lifestyle, but if you are privately voting, some people may not vote for the gay guy, even if he’s the most talented on AI, especially if the other choice is a straight Christian guy who is a good singer.
I would love to have more faith in the AI voting public, but I’ve been nervous. Thank goodness the bulk of the press/fan comments about Adam’s pre AI photos has been positive.
An AI staffer later accused Mario of sexual harassment. That probably had more to do with his dropping out. Clive signed him anyway, and his album tanked. I’m guessing that TPTB have a few chosen ones and he was one of them. I don’t think he was dropped for being gay, but I’m sure they didn’t want the sexual harassment suit out there.
That said, I still don’t see the difference between Adam, David H and Anwar, except that Adam has been more successful. They all made top 12. Adam is a little more out there in terms of performance style, but I’d argue that Anwar and David H were being consistent with their styles, too. Love it or not. I did not love David H. Cruise ship karaoke FTL.
DA’s twitter… what is this boy doing…. @_@;
4. @ThatsSoBelleee What’s strange is that it was fine earlier this morning! It suddenly got freezing though on my way back.
3. I didn’t have to be hospitalized or anything by the way, just needed to find shelter and keep warm haha. And sit down to take a break!
2. I’m so glad for the Lemington Centre’s hospitality! Thanks so much!
1. Went for a run this morning, only I nearly broke down and froze to death! lol. Pushed myself a little too much I guess.
OMG frogcoke! He is still getting over his cold or whatever he had/has! What is the kid doing? I sure wish he had a stage dad to control him some times.
Yeah he’s still not completely over that cold.. I can hear it in his voice… >:( *shakes fist*
Actually, I went to bed.
But, to answer your final question, I don’t draw lines, as I typically am unable to color inside them. I do imagine that your renderings are immaculate though, without the slightest mark landing anywhere other than where it should, and absolutely beautiful in their own right and style. And, good on you for that.
So, with that, no more feeble attempts at a (very) little humor (today), even though I made tinawina laugh. Thanks for the hugs and loves, tinawina — and SpenserJ and Tess, for the expose’ on sources and styles of humor.
P.S. I am resisting the urge to explain “my joke,” or more pertinently, the background for it — which is more a joke on me and my own religious rearing (and veering?) — but this is neither the time nor the place…. Peace~
In so many ways, I don’t color within the lines, but unfortunately people here will never really know how.