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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > April > 30
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
4/30: Top 5 Idol results show w/ Brooke White gone, Paula Abdul tries to explain gaffe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jason Castro deserved to go tonight. Heck, he probably wanted to go home, take a little break before the tour and chill! But as recent weeks have indicated, the most obvious person hasn’t been going home. Instead, Brooke White is out.
And for the seventh time in eight weeks, I got it wrong. This is easily my worst year ever making picks. Thank goodness I haven’t staked any cash! You have to wonder if Paula’s flub actually helped Jason out.
I don’t think anyone is shocked or upset. But in the end, the ever tearful Brooke brought a sweetness, a singleness, a uniqueness to “Idol.” We never had anyone quite like her before. She’s the gal who didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, the gal Simon wanted to corrupt during the auditions but ultimately didn’t. She’s the new generation Carly Simon, a singer songwriter with a distinctive flair. She may not have had the best vocal chops but she has a real future ahead of her. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead for Brooke.
And not surprisingly, she messed up her post-elimination “I Am I Said” but she was so sweet about it, so human as she cried, it’s impossible not to feel for a lump in my throat. And as we talked about before here on the blog, I’m glad “Idol” allowed instruments because she truly took advantage of that new rule.
Mike S is right: Syesha wasn’t necessarily in the bottom two. Ryan never says she was and if dialidol.com is correct, she wasn’t. I’d say Jason was though he was the first pronounced safe.
Other parts of the show included a passable group sing (with David Cook doing the closest actual Neil Diamond cadence), a promo with Constantine (yes, Ryan asks him for “the look”) and Gina Glocksen for “American Idol Extra.” And Ryan didn’t address the Paula rumors directly but said she’s still duly employed with “Idol.” I’m surprised they didn’t let Paula explain herself to the viewers. There was a loooong promo for “So You Think You Can Dance” and a contest winner for the new Coke cup.
Natasha Bedingfield was the second Brit the British producers brought in. And an American treasure, Neil Diamond performed a fairly lame tune, then promoted his album in somnolent fashion. The pre-taped Q&A featured the gal he kissed as a nine year old. Can we have pictures?
In other “Idol” news:
-Paula Adbul — in damage control mode — did her weekly call to Q100 a week early to try to explain her, um, confusion last night. But she never really does, still clinging to that “I was reading my David Cook critique” excuse, which doesn’t make sense since she liked what he did. She said she did catch part of Jason’s second performance at dress rehearsal on a monitor. She also said the format change was thrown at the judges at the last second and the entire hour felt rushed and chaotic.
Bert confronted her about her pain medication for her bad back and that the meds affect her more some days than others. Her response: “That’s a very sweet and thoughtful. I do have pain in my neck.I don’t take anything that makes me do anything to act different, especially on show days. I’ve never been drunk in my life. I’ve never done recreational anything in my life… I am a happy workaholic.”
To ETonline.com, she elaborated thusly:
“It got very confusing … the producers come up to us in the dark and said, ‘We are not going to have you guys judge after each performer, we are going to have all the performers go once, then twice and at the end critique them.’”
-The theme next week is the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. I presume that means songs from groups who are in the Hall of Fame (and get cleared by Idol). Or what?
-MTV talks to some of David Cook’s former bandmates of his band Axium, and they are all kind words.
