April 2007 News Archive (Page 6)

Apparently, the world of celebrity sex tapes is not reserved for talentless rich folks such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.

TheHollywoodGossip.com is reporting that former American Idol contestant from season two, Olivia Mojica, was involved in a "nasty" video that will soon be released to the public.

Allegedly, the tape was shot with Mojica’s boyfriend at the time, but there are no further details regarding when it took place. A website featuring a preview of the tape will launch soon.

Vivid Entertainment is the front-runner to distribute the video, but Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of the company, said he has no comment right now.

Thanks to People magazine for this report from last night's American Idol show ...

Lucky No. 7: After Melinda Doolittle's show opening performance of "Sway," the house settled down a bit. But it was Blake Lewis, the next-to-last contestant, who got the audience out of their seats with his performance of the Marc Anthony hit "I Need to Know." Decked out in a red tuxedo shirt, Blake created so much excitement that producers had to hush the rowdy crowd.

And as soon as the show went to commercial break, fans erupted into applause and squeals of "I love you, Blaaaaaaake!"

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Simon Cowell can sure pour on the charm – just ask the young, tanned fan who got up enough nerve to ask him what he finds sexiest in a woman. Without missing a beat, Simon said, "Someone with blonde hair and a brown top." Which, of course, got the fan with the blonde hair and brown shirt squealing with excitement before she sat back down next to her boyfriend.

Arm Candy: While Simon was busy paying compliments to other women, Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe took the opportunity to make his move on Simon's girlfriend, Extra correspondent Terri Seymour.

During Sanjaya Malakar's rendition of "Besame Mucho," Lythgoe grabbed Seymour's arm and began playfully planting kisses on it, starting from her wrist and working his way up to her elbow. Simon's reaction? He glanced over to see the shenanigans, and all three chuckled.

The Sanjaya Hair Band?: Sitting with Sanjaya's mom Jill and sister Shyamali (who auditioned this season with her brother but didn't make the Top 24) were two friends, one of whom sported, yes, a Sanjaya-like pony-hawk.

Call Him Jock Ryan: A fan named Bonnie from Pittsburgh sported a sign for host Ryan Seacrest that read "Pittsburgh Loves Ryan." Seacrest was alerted to the sign and he waved to Bonnie during a commercial break and said, "I love Pittsburgh." The dialogue continued with Bonnie assuring Seacrest, a former high school football player (who knew?), that "the Steelers love you, too."

Thank you to Entertainment Weekly for the following interview ...

You've seen Michael Orland (pictured, below) on American Idol countless times, but you probably don't know it. He's the guy sitting behind the piano while the contestants rehearse with the guest mentor.

As Idol's official musical composer, Orland gets to work with each contestant on their arrangements, so we thought we should check in with him about Blake's beatboxing, Phil's harsh reviews, and Tony Bennett's disregarded advice.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What's the contestants' schedule for deciding on a song?
MICHAEL ORLAND: By the Thursday before the Tuesday of the show, they know and we work out the arrangements. Friday they work on them again and perfect them, Saturday we meet with our guest mentor for the week, Monday we rehearse with the band, and Tuesday is the show. It's a quick turnover, especially when you realize people spend months working in a studio on a single song.

EW: Your arrangements have taken some hits this year — I'm thinking specifically of Chris Sligh's Endless Love, which got slammed by the judges. Do you regret Coldplay-ifying that song?
Orland: We will take the blame for an arrangement but a lot of times — and it's happened a lot more this season than seasons past — contestants have had exact ideas what they wanted to do. My mother called me after ''Endless Love'' and said, ''Why did you want to do that?'' But he came in with that arrangement. That was totally his idea and when they want to do something like that we cannot stop them. That song is so beautiful that, as Diana Ross said, all you have to do is sing the melody.

At one point the contestants had this need to put their stamp on everything, not realizing it was changing the integrity of the song. They're all learning now that they can sing it straight.

EW: Speaking of which, I'm so happy that Blake Lewis has stopped beatboxing his way through every song because it's made him a much more interesting singer. Did you coach him on that?
Orland: As long as we're not picking a song for anybody, once the choice of song is made we're all over it. We help as much as we can. That's something Blake chose to do. He decided he could give it a rest for a couple of weeks.

EW: It seems like the contestants are ignoring a lot of advice this year. For example, this week Tony Bennett told Haley Scarnato not do the whole ''And you, and you, and you'' line in ''Ain't Misbehavin,'' and advised Phil to add some beats behind the words ''Night and Day.'' And yet, neither listened. What do you make of that?
Orland: Those two and LaKisha Jones, who was told by Tony Bennett to end on the one note, when instead she ended on ''Ain't no sunshine when he's gone.'' Believe me, no one wanted to come off being disrespectful. I know the kids were just blown away by him. I was a wreck playing the piano in front of him. He just happens to be a real purist with the melodies.

Unfortunately, because of the way they had the clips, it made the kids look like they weren't going to listen to what he said. But we tried it his way. I worked with Haley and LaKisha that week and we tried changing it up and playing it straight. We came back to the studio on Monday and said, ''Let's try it his way.'' It just didn't work. They have to do how it feels right to them.

EW: In Haley's defense, the whole flirty shtick worked well with her new skirt-up-to-my-hoo-ha image.
Orland: Yeah, you have to take what the mentor says, learn whatever you can, and then be comfortable with your own performance. You're the one being judged, not Tony Bennett.

EW: What happens when the singers can't nail down a song choice?

Continue Reading...

A contestant will join Gina Glocksen in the land of the unwanted after tonight's American Idol results show.

In the meantime, suburban Chicago newspaper, The Naperville Sun asked readers to send their best to Glocksen shortly after the 22-year-old resident had been voted off the show. Here's a collection of e-mails submitted by readers.

I just wanted to congratulate you on your appearance on American Idol. It was awesome to see you perform on the show. I voted for you every time. You are phenomenal and have a great talent.

You should be so proud of yourself; some people would not have the opportunity to go as far as you did on the show. I was definitely shocked to hear Ryan Seacrest call your name. It was a sad day for both of us, but I know you will make your comeback someday.
- Cheryl R. of Minooka

As a fellow Naperville girl, I was shocked that you were voted off. I can't believe that some of them are still there - Haley, Sanjaya, Phil. This reinforces what I've read recently. You really sounded like Chrissie Hynde ("I'll Stand By You") and "Smile" was great also. It was bittersweet to see you singing that as your last song. Keep your chin up. I know that there is a recording company that will sign you up.
- Terri H.

I wanted to say congrats on making it as far as you did, although I think you really deserved to go much further. You were pretty much the only reason I watched American Idol this season. I think you're a real classy and talented act, and I know you have what it takes to have a long and successful career in music!
- Rock

Gina, wanted to let you know that we are very proud of the job you have done on American Idol. I am a 60-year-old grandfather and was introduced to the show by my granddaughters, sister and wife. I cannot understand the voting system that is being used. It is not for the talent. If it were, you would still be there. You have a wonderful voice and I am looking to hear more from you professionally as your career moves on.
- Charlie Earl, Naperville

I am a Naperville resident and I really liked you, and voted for you all the time. I know it's sad to see you go. You deserved to go further and Sanjaya does not deserve to get a better place than you. You got ninth place out of over 100,000 people! That is really good. I really want to see you tour with the Idols and I really want to meet you! My family loves you also. Good luck. - Elliott Borchardt, Naperville

It's Jenny from the Block night, fans. And Ryan Seacrest says Jennifer Lopez is an "unstoppable force." We guess you could call her that. Or maybe just "phony." Either works, really.

Anyway, on to the show ...

- Melinda Doolittle is sporting some sort of soccer mom style hair. And, maybe because we have nothing to compare her performance to yet, actually didn't blow us away this week. Wasn't anything that really Swayed us about it.

- Randy is all about Lakisha Jones tonight, but Paula actually doesn't agree for once. Way to stand up for yourself, Ms. Abdul! We thought it was solid enough, but were mostly entertained by J. Lo trying to give Lakisha singing advice.

- Smooth is a Latin song, really? Rob Thomas sure had us fooled. The song seems too low for Chris Richardson, but the judges like it. Simon even calls it the best so far. We're not gonna argue with him ... but nothing about Richardson seems original to us (sorry, Lauren Conrad).

- Haley Scarnato certainly is original, though. Those were satin short shorts, right? Turn the Beat Around is a fun song and she has fun with it. Vocals weren't anything great, but it's not hard to see this singer selling a lot of records, is it?

- Now we come to Phil Stacey, who doesn't do anything more for us this week than he has in the past. The dude is just boring. This performance was okay enough, but he definitely lost it at the end. We hope he's the next to go.

- Okay, if Jordin Sparks is struggling, we blame the theme for these lackluster performances. Her Glorida Estefan rendition is decent, but nothing compared to her earlier weeks. Then again, has anyone's been so far?

- Look at the cajones on Blake Lewis! The guy covers a song by J. Lo's husband .... and does it very well. It's hard for this creative singer to ever really have a bad performance.

- Gee, we wonder if FOX is saving Sanjaya Malakar for last just to build rating. The network would never do that, would it? If Simon says it's "not horrible," though, we're pretty sure this dude will last at least another week.

People sell a lot of crazy stuff on eBay. Remember the time someone auctioned off a vision of the Virgin Mary in his toast?

It can be frightening what some folks will bid on. And that certainly includes the doll of Sanjaya Malakar we came across. As of this posting, the leading amount for this item was over $102.

That's almost crazier than the fact that Sanjaya is still alive in the competition.

Just imagine what a Haley Scarnato doll would go for.

She may have been voted off American Idol, but Gina Glocksen still has a lot to say. Below, she comments on the one, the only ... Sanjaya Malakar.

"It's funny that everyone is asking is it tough that Sanjaya [moved on], I mean it's tough that all the other eight people did. It's not just Sanjaya," Gina said.

She also added: "He's just different. It's not that he's better or worse. He's Sanjaya and Jordin is Jordin and Chris is Chris and Blake is Blake; America, I guess, was through with me, and that's fine. I'm fine with it. I'm going to tour."

Sounds like a reasonable assessment to us. But still, come on, let's not compare Jordin Sparks to Sanjaya in any way please.

When asked what she thought about Sanjaya hanging in there every week, Gina Glocksen said: "I'm proud of him. He's hanging in there and he's not letting it get to him. He still comes out on stage every week and he gives his all."

Okay, Gina, but what about that hair? Do you have any styling tips for Malakar?

"Oh, no. No. It's funny; it's like a competition - who has better hair, and we're going to have a hair-off...I [the faux-hawk was] number one; I think it was awesome. It just set him apart from everyone else. It was crazy."

We can't argue with that.

Once again, let's turn it over to former American Idol favorite, Bucky Covington ...

My album comes out in a little over a week, and I've got to admit I've been a little more nervous lately. We've already seen some great reviews, from people who've written about it and sent us an email. So I'm really excited, but there's a bit of nervousness in there. I'm really interested to see what it's going to do. I hope it does well.

The first song on the album is called American Friday Night. It was written by Tom Douglas, who wrote another song that I love, Collin Raye's Little Rock. Tom lives across the street from my producer, Mark Miller. Tom was sitting outside one day, so we stopped by and Mark introduced me. Tom's got this beautiful house. So I was shaking his hand, but I was looking at this house of his. I said, "Man, that is a great song you wrote."

I mean, it was an extraordinary house.

A little while later, Tom sent us a disc of songs, and American Friday Night was one of them. As soon as I heard it, I knew it had the drive and I could immediately relate. In a small town, the only thing there is to do on a Friday night is the high-school football game. Anywhere else you go is dead. So, like it or not, you go to the football game.

We recorded the song the day after he sent it to us, and there was a film crew there to do an interview, so in the background, of course, you could hear us recording American Friday Night. A couple days later, Tom was at a Halloween party, and he hears his song on the news. He called Mark: "Mark, have you already cut that song?" Mark said: "I told you we were ready. The song was good, so we did it." Tom was kind of blown away by that.

I've been doing a lot of press lately –- I had a big media day last Wednesday. I've got to say, the country press has been pretty nice. When you're on Idol, you've got pop critics and rock critics, anybody and everybody writing about you. If they didn't dig country music, there was no telling what they were going to write about me.

The hardest interviews are the ones where you feel like you have to drag it along, where you almost have to drag the questions out of the reporter. But with country interviews, nine times out of 10, I'm talking to people who've got accents like I do. So they can understand me. We're off to a good start.

Continue Reading...

First, he was rumored to be dating Alaina Alexander.

Now, though, Chris Richardson has been seen out and about with an even more well known Hollywood starlet:

Lauren Conrad.

According TheHollywoodGossip.com, this American Idol crooner was recently spotted leaving club Les Deux ... with the smiling star of MTV's The Hills by his side. The cameras of TMZ caught these two possible love birds bypassing the long line into the aforementioned hot spot. Together.

We'll have more on this situation as it develops.

As season-three winner Fantasia Barrino gets ready to make her Broadway debut in The Color Purple tomorrow, she wanted to set the record straight about her tough past.

She tells the New York Post that she was never illiterate.

"I dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and when I said I had trouble reading, they took it that I couldn't read at all," she says. "I knew the basics, but some words that were unfamiliar, I couldn't figure them out."

However, the "brand-new" Fantasia wants the world to know this: "I'm da bomb now, babe!"

Apparently, she is. Since Oprah handpicked Fantasia to play the lead of Celie in the Broadway musical, she's been racking up box-office ticket sales – to the sweet tune of $6.5 million.

ut the $6 million-dollar-American Idol champion isn't nervous about living up to the hype: "I just want everyone to know that I have worked my butt off."