I'm going to start publishing the stories daily from Idiot box...there are many many prior...but i'll do it from this point forward!!
published march 1, 2007
Hunt is on for source of Idol contestant photos
SKIN PICTURES: The Antonella Barba story is the gift that keeps on giving for Idol this season, providing the necessary buzz during the mid-season lull before the competition gets heated, and it looks like it’ll keep delivering, at least for the foreseeable future. Idol’s producers have stated that they’re not going to give the 20-year-old college student the bounce from the show, not for the merely tawdry party pix and private snaps that emerged last week, nor the much more explicit sex photos that hit the net last Friday, and which it’s universally agreed are likely fakes.
“You know what, whoever sold those is despicable,” said judge Simon Cowell at a Playboy Mansion party Tuesday night, when cornered by Access Hollywood reporter Laura Saltman and shown some of the photos. “I really mean that. It's despicable. That is private property. Out of order. Honestly. It's repulsive."
The hunt is on for the source of the photos, with one suspect being Barba’s ex-boyfriend, a Catholic University lacrosse player who was given a calendar featuring the cheesecake lingerie and wet t-shirt shots by Barba as a gift. Another suspect is best friend Amanda Collucio, who auditioned for Idol with Barba. At the Playboy party, former Idol contestant Bo Bice even weighed in on the personal cost of Idol to Saltman: “You learn who your friends are. Your friend base becomes a lot closer so you do, you got to watch your back.”
Of course, where one person might see tragedy, another sees opportunity – “She really looks sexy here,” said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner when shown the photos, who was then asked whether he’d approach Barba to pose for the magazine when she exits Idol. “Very real possibility,” he said. “Yes, absolutely.”
Extra was also all over the story, revealing that a poll they’d taken showed that 67 per cent of their readers thought the photos would hurt Barba’s chance of winning Idol. Actually, there are a few more likely obstacles in the way of Barba’s Idol win – their names are Stephanie Edwards, Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones. In somewhat related news, Tuesday night’s Idol gave a big boost to Fox’s new show, What You Watching, Dumbass? ... I mean, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? The Jeff Foxworthy-hosted show pulled in 26.6 million viewers, the best series premiere in Fox network history according to Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel.
published march 1, 2007
Boys are back, Idol’s women hold their own
Melinda catches judges’ praise and audience applause
American Idol Top 10 finalist Lakisha Jones.
This week’s Idol script is that the men have come back, and that the women need to prove themselves after, well, proving themselves last week.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but this isn’t the Brothers Karamazov.
Gina Glocksen is the first up, and she disappoints Simon, who thought she would be edgier. Randy disagrees — for some reason, he seems to think that a Heart cover is edgy.
Alaina Alexander turns in a pallid version of the latest Dixie Chicks single that (rather too easily) turns Natalie Maines’ defiant declaration of principles into yet another self-esteem anthem.
Lakisha Jones follows with a Gladys Knight hit that should have left the room like a Soyuz missile; her first note resonates like a storm in a forest, but what follows sounds hobbled. She can afford to coast — there’s a target rich environment to be taken out before she has to worry — but one suspects that Idol’s scriptwriters have her set up for a trial by hubris.
Melinda Doolittle steps into Lakisha’s slipstream with a simmering performance of My Funny Valentine; Randy and Paula yap approvingly, and Simon calls it incredible, which prompts a gale of applause from the audience, proof withholding worthless praise makes your good opinion mean more.
Antonella Barba, the focus of most of Idol’s press in the last week, chooses a Celine Dion song and presses it as flat as last year’s prom corsage.
After a brief flurry of accusations at the judges’ table about who voted Jennifer Hudson off Idol, Simon points out that it was the voters who did the deed, and that nothing he says will probably have any effect on tonight’s vote if, for some perverse reason, voters decide to keep Barba on the show.
If Lakisha — or the audience — ends up following the Idol script that would see her choke, Stephanie Edwards is her only other real competition besides Melinda.
The less said about the rest of the contestants the better — the last half hour of the show would have been more profitably spent sorting the paper clip jar on my desk.