Blog Posts For Tag: American Idol

A former “American Idol” contestant Alexis Cohen, known as the Glitter Girl, was killed in a hit and run accident on Saturday in New Jersey. She was just 25 years old. She auditioned for “American Idol” back in 2007 and tried again 2008. She did get an audition her first time but was completely turned away the second time. It is surprising she ever returned after the unkind words that Simon had to say of her performance. Not to mention the tirade she went on after she walked out of the audition. Let’s just say she was upset and didn’t have very nice things to say about Simon….there was even some cursing involved.  On a much happier subject, Angie Everhart welcomed her first child, a boy, on July 24th. New baby is Kayden Bobby, and Angie plans to raise him alone. In fact she has not shared any details about who the father might be.  Everhart is 39 and is best known for her swim suit appearances in Sports Illustrated and she has also hosted several reality TV shows. She has been in several films including “Another 9 ½ Weeks” and “Last Action Hero”.

The Octomom, Nadya Suleman, finally has the reality show she has been hoping for. Filming will start September 1 and will most likely air first in the U.K and then here in the states. Eyeworks is the company producing the show and they have also produced, “The Biggest Loser” and “Breaking Bonaduce”. Suleman’s brood will make about $250,000 over 3 years and that roughly breaks down to about $250 a day per kid. Compared to other reality shows their taping schedule will be pretty light. For the first year they will only film for 36 days, the second year only 21 days and the third year only 14 days. Sounds pretty non evasive to me. That was Nadya’s plan all along; she just wants to film certain milestones in their lives. Oddly enough she is trying to stay away from the whole “Jon and Kate Plus 8” scenario. Hey, maybe she is smarter than we originally thought. Not to mention 15% of the children’s earnings will automatically go into a trust fund for each child that they cannot touch until they turn 18 as required by state law in California.

Game On…Shaquille O’Neal is getting his own sporting competition reality show on ABC this summer. Starting on August 18th Shaq is taking on some of the world’s favorite athletes at their own game. Here are a few examples of who and what this Cleveland Cavalier is going to be doing. First up on the debut show, called “Shaq VS.”, Shaq is going to swim against Michael Phelps the Olympic Gold medal superstar. You will also be able to see him box against the legendary Oscar De LaHoya, play a little tennis with Serena Williams and bat against St. Louis Cardinals favorite Albert Pujols. What is he thinking? Here is his plan though…he is going to train hard for a week prior to each competition and by that time he will have a pre-negotiated handicap again each opponent to give him a fair shot. The 37 year old hopes that all this training will help him in his upcoming basketball season. O’Neal has won an NBA championship 4 times in his basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat and he hopes to help his new team achieve the same.
 

This is a very gossipy story and I feel bad even talking about it because I really like this actress but here is the scoop.  Star Magazine is reporting that former Charlie’s Angel, Kate Jackson, maybe be suffering from an old drug habit again. In a very odd story the Star has witnesses reporting that they went into to professionally clean Kate’s $2 million home which was totally trashed on the inside and out.  Neighbors have complained about all the clutter in the backyard and it took a cleaning crew two days to haul out and clean up all the garbage. Some of the cleaners didn’t even want to return for the second day. They complained of the smell since there was so much trash around, and old moldy food and even rat droppings. In addition to the wreck that the house was in the cleaners said that Jackson was no better. They said she was talking extremely fast, stuttering and even repeating things over. Someone even called her a “crazy recluse” The famous actress is now 60 and that just seems like a bizarre and sad story.

Big break up news today. Not exactly the birthday gift she was hoping for …Tony Romo broke up with Jessica Simpson the night before her 29th birthday. It seems that the happy couple has not been happy for awhile. The two have very busy schedules; Tony busy with quarterbacking for the Dallas Cowboys and Jessica working on her new reality show, “The Price of Beauty”. Jessica still loves Tony and is brokenhearted but it just wasn’t meant to be. Jessica sent out a tweet to her fans to let them know she is doing ok and still hopeful about finding love again. She says, “Everyone needs to know that hope floats…grab the strings and pull it back to you.”

Today is the day that the world will get their chance to say their final goodbyes to Michael Jackson. Although it has not been known until just recently Michael Jackson’s body will be at the Staples Center today for the memorial service. In fact it is being reported that the LAPD SWAT team will be part of the motorcade bringing the body from Forest Lawn Cemetery, where the family held a private memorial, to the Staples Center. There is also a helicopter ready to go as well in case any safety issues do develop. The event is going to end up costing the city of Los Angeles around $4 million and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking the fans to help cover the costs. There is even a PayPal account that has been set up by the mayor where you can donate money directly. You can visit the mayors Facebook page or even his twitter page if you would like to participate. www.Facebook.com/villaraigosa or www.twitter.com/villaraigosa . The Staples Memorial Service will start at 10:00 a.m. pacific time and Rev. Al Sharpton is set to deliver the eulogy. I have to say I am a bit nervous to watch, I just hope there are no altercations or issues with all those people and fans gathered together. This event is said to be the biggest of all time, even bigger the Obama’s inauguration. Billions of people are going to be watching it on TV and between being streamed live and people Twittering about it this will really be a historic event.
 

Keith Urban speaks out about the baby adoption rumors that have been swirling around.  During a radio interview for a Tampa Bay station, Keith says that the rumors about him and wife Nicole Kidman adopting a baby from Vietnam are completely untrue, and he has no idea how stories like this even get started. He also goes on to say that Nicole is not pregnant either. Keith does talk about how his concert tour which has an element of reality TV added to it. Cameras are following the country star around at all times and then the footage is being shown during his concerts on the jumbo screen. That is a nice touch; I think it would be interesting to see a day in the life of Keith Urban.
 

Thanks to a little help from his friends, an ugly green ogre, Shrek and pal Donkey, from “Shrek the Musical”, Brett Michaels, from Poison, is doing ok after getting banged up during Sunday nights Tony Awards. After visiting the ER, Michaels received 3 stitches to his lip, and x-rays confirmed a fractured nose. That was quite a finish to his song “Nothin’ But a Good Time” that he sang with the cast of “Rock of Ages”.  Brett was a good sport and wasn’t angry about the incident but his reps are denying the fact the Brett “missed his mark” as was being said for the reason of the mishap. Luckily all is fine. Michaels may have to cancel his next performance, but they will just have to wait and see. He is on a solo tour right now.
 

The Tony Awards were last night and in addition to the excitement of the awards there was also unexpected excitement involving “Rock of Love Star” and Poison band mate, Brett Michaels. He was performing with the cast of “Rock of Ages”, when he missed his mark, and he was hit in the head while some scenery was being moved down from the ceiling area. At first it was thought the hit may have broken his nose but that was not the case. He did make a trip to the ER just to make sure he was fine and thankfully he was; now that was reality TV. It was a big night though for many of the great shows and plays. “Billy Elliot” came out on top as a true shining star winning 10 awards for the night which included, Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor, Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, plus Best Lighting Design of a Musical and a few other categories. “Hair” won Best Revival of a Musical and “God of Carnage” won Best Play.  Marcia Gay Harden won Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in “God of Carnage “and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush won Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for “Exit the King”. “Shrek the Musical” won for Best Costume Design of a Musical. The amazing Angela Lansbury, who is 83 years old, won a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for “Blithe Spirit”. This was her 5th Tony Award. It was a fun show with some great musical performances and host Neil Patrick Harris from the show “How I Met Your Mother” did a fine job.
 

Remember Mary Kay Letourneau (the teacher convicted of raping her 12 year old student and went to jail for 7 ½ years for the crime)? Well it really was true love, although it started out as a very disturbing story. Letourneau is now 47 (hard to believe) and her husband/student of 5 years, Vilii Fualaa, 26 are still together and happy. It is a crazy story but I have to admit I am happy for them. She did her time in prison, he waited, they have a couple of kids and through all this there are still together. The two are in the news this weekend because Mary Kay emceed the “Hot Teacher Night”,event and Vili was the DJ at the Fuel Sports Eats & Beats Bar, in Seattle.

A new “American Idol” has been crowned and it was a shocker… Kris Allen won it all with almost 100 million votes being cast, an all time record for the show. Kris Allen, the 23 year old home town boy from Arkansas was just a surprised to hear he beat out favorite Adam Lambert who had been predicted to win. Kris started out slow and just continued to get stronger and stronger each week and the fans loved that. And holey moley, did you check out bikini girl, Katrina Darrell and judge Kara DioGuardi – what a duo the two made. Not only did the two sing, they also showed off those bodies. Katrina showed it off the whole time but Judge #4 did it quick. Let’s just say she is definitely ready for bathing suit season. It was a fun night with great performances and duets. Adam got down with Kiss and sang an awesome medley, while Kris and Keith Urban had a blast singing “Kiss A Girl”.  I have to say although I felt bad for Adam it was nice to actually be surprised. And after seeing what other Idol non winners have been up to I am sure he will be just fine and very successful.

One down and one to go. We now know who won “Dancing with the Stars” and very soon we will know who the big winner is on “American Idol”. Congratulations to the youngest winner ever, 17 year old, Olympic gold medalist, Shawn Johnson. She just barely beat out her French opponent, Gilles Marini, since there was less than 1% of votes that separated the two. So congratulations are definitely due for Gilles as well. Another big winner is Mark Ballas, who is now a two time title winner for ‘DWTS”. Although the show could have easily been done in 1 hour they really milked that second hour and filled it with so much junk… I mean recap…filler stuff.  At least Lady Gaga was good entertainment, not only her two songs “Just Dance” and “Love Game” but the costumes on that woman…whoa!  So that is it for Season 8. Now we will just have to wait patiently to see who the next cast of “stars” will consist of.

The big news this morning seems to be that ‘Sex and the City “actress, Cynthia Nixon and her girlfriend of 5 years, Christine Marinoni, got engaged. Nixon has 2 children, Samantha 12 and Charles 6 from a previous relationship with photographer, Danny Mozes. The 2 actually announced their engagement during a gay rights rally that they were attending in New York City. The 2 hope to be able to eventually legalize their marriage in New York and say they will wait for legislation to pass the gay marriage act. A vote is actually set to happen soon, but at this point still needs more support from congress.

Holly Madison seems to be another girl we just can’t get enough of. From Hef’s main squeeze, to “Dancing with the Stars”, her next project is going to be to star in “PEEPSHOW” the sexy new burlesque show in Las Vegas. The former “Girl Next Door” star will be replacing Kelly Monaco, when her 3 month contract is up in June. “Dancing with the Stars” seems to be a bit of a stepping stone or prerequisite for the show, since Madison will be the third star from Dancing to join the cast. Monaco was the winner from season 1 and Melanie Brown who is also currently starring in Peepshow was a runner up from season 5. Although the show does feature topless performers the stars themselves are remaining covered up. “Peepshow” is at Planet Hollywood and although it has just been a month is doing well.

Big honors for the country duo Brooks and Dunn along with Dierks Bentley who were honored in Sydney Australia for promoting their country music abroad. They were honored by the Country Music Association and Bentley actually won the International Artist Achievement Award. So it was a pretty big achievement for all of them. In the past some winners have included Keith Urban, Shania Twain, Dwight Yokam, the Dixie Chicks and Trisha Yearwood. Congratulations guys!

Sadly the Jon & Kate Plus 8 plot thickens…US Magazine is confirming that Jon Gosselin has been having an affair for 3 months, with Deanna Hummel, a 3rd grade teacher. The news comes straight from Deanna’s brother and roommate, Jason. In addition to Jason, the magazine is reporting that they have talked to 5 additional people who are also confirming the story. I have to say I am sitting here shocked, and although I wrote two stories about his late night mishaps, I was really hoping in my heart that his denials were true. The brother gives detailed descriptions of times the two have been together and it seems that they have been able to spend a lot of time together. Wow, pretty shocking…I wonder what this will mean for the Gosselin family and next seasons show. I am sure Kate does not want to be raising that family on her own. Good luck guys. I am sure we will be hearing more on the Jon & Kate saga.

Elton John is smiling this morning…his musical “Billy Elliot” was nominated for 15 Tony awards, one of which includes Best Musical. Also up for the top award are “Rock of Ages”, “Shrek the Musical” and “Next to Normal”. The Tony Awards will air on CBS on June 7^th at Radio City Music Hall. And in other breaking news…the controversial 4^th American Idol judge, Kara DioGuardi, will be back next season. Simon Cowell actually shared the news with Ellen DeGeneres and you can watch it today, Tuesday, on her show.

Sad news this weekend for “American Idol” winner David Cook. He lost his brother Adam, 37, who has been battling a brain tumor for over 10 years. Ironically, David was in D.C. for the 12th Annual Race for Hope 5K, in which he was the grand marshal as well as a runner. Along with his team they raised over $98,000 which will go to the National Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. David actually spoke to the crowd and actually shared with them that morning that his brother had just died the night before. He told the crowd “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.” Jeff Kolodin, who was the co chair for the race said this about David, he “is beyond the most courageous young person I have ever known. He spent his entire day hugging survivors, signing autographs for them taking pictures. He shared his very private moment with thousands. He was willing to put his personal raw emotion out there, knowing he was being filmed. He’s a heck of a person.” That is an incredible story. Our thoughts and prayers are with you David, during this very difficult time.

“American Idol” just keeps on giving. Here is a great story about Chris Sligh who was a finalist from season six. He wrote the new number one country song, “Here Comes Goodbye” for the group Rascal Flatts. So here was the guy who joked about “bringing chubby back” when he was on Idol and he himself claimed not to have the look of a rock star but the guy has found his calling. After “American Idol” he moved to Nashville in 2007 and look at him now. I am sure this is not the last we will hear from him.  What is so ironic though about this story and his writing abilities is that he was brought up a strict fundamentalist Baptist and was not even allowed to listen to pop or rock music. He has not ventured that far from his roots though and has a Christian music album out called “Run to You” which has been successful and in the top 10 on the Christian music charts. He hopes to release his second album soon. He says “we’re trying to make a record that transcends the genre of Christian music and can stand up to U2 or Coldplay or something like that I think it could blow a lot of people away.” And in other Idol news…Condoleezza Rice is a huge Randy Jackson fan and when she was recently in Los Angeles to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” she had a meeting with Randy Jackson where they hung out and talked for 90 minutes. No love connection however since Randy has been married since 1995. She is totally into music and Randy, and has always wanted to meet him and she got her chance and had a lovely time.

It was a very close race but in the end Ashton Kutcher beat out CNN in the race to 1 million Twitter followers. It was so close that only 30 minutes separated the two. Congratulations Ashton that is a pretty amazing feat. Now I wouldn’t want to be the one to say that perhaps Ashton is getting a big head but here is what he had to say about the win. “This is David versus Goliath. This just shows how people want to get information. It is about us. It means that one man can have a voice as loud as a media network.” Well the good news is that not only did Twitter and Ashton break the first 1 million follower goal; Ashton is sticking to his word and will be donating 10,000 mosquito nettings for beds for World Malaria Day. Next up on Twitter is Oprah. She actually started tweeting on Friday.  When Oprah speaks people listen…literally. In her first 15 minutes she had 76,000 followers and within her first hour over 125,000 followers. How long until she passes 1 million?

Could it finally be love for Ryan Seacrest? It seems that the busiest guy in Hollywood is actually in a relationship and has been for several months. Seacrest has been dating Jasmine Waltz, who is a bartender in Los Angeles. The two are currently in Paris now that Ryan is done with his hosting duties on “American Idol”. Not only is there love in Ryan’s life, it also seems that he is going to get even busier come May 4th when  his radio show will expand an extra hour to 4 hours, “On Air with Ryan Seacrest”. We just can’t get enough of him can we? And speaking of ” American Idol”, history was made last night when the judges decided to use their one time power of saving someone from elimination, and they did just that with 23 year old Matt Giraud. He had been voted off by the fans call in votes when he sang “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” by Bryan Adams. He may have been saved this week, however that means that next week 2 people will voted off.  Needless to say it was an emotional and exciting show.

Disney’s new “it girl”, Demi Lovato is heading out on tour this summer, starting June 21st in Hartford Connecticut. If you don’t have kids you might not know who I am talking about but this 16 year old girl is the next Miley Cyrus. She currently stars in the new Disney channel show, “Sonny with a Chance” or you may know her from the show “Camp Rock” which she was in with fellow co – stars the Jonas Brothers. Demi is going to be quite a busy kid doing 47 shows this summer which is basically a different city every night. David Archuleta from the 7th season of “American Idol” will be her opening act and Jordan Pruitt and well as KSM will also be helping her out during the tour for special dates. Not bad summer plans for a 16 year old kid.

This weekend was all about Nickelodeons 22nd Annual Kids Choice Awards. I cannot believe I am about to admit this publically but I have already seen it twice. For the record I was watching it with kids though. Nickelodeon has been hyping it up for weeks with commercials with The Rock, who was this year’s host, along with commercials also done with last year’s host, Justin Timberlake. Not only were there commercials on TV and advertising in the magazines, we watched several web broadcasts from the team of " ICarly", with Miranda Costgrove and friends, one of Nickelodeons best new shows.  And Nickelodeon did such a good job promoting the show they had over 90 million people vote online for this year’s favorites. That was definitely a record for the award show. I have to say The Rock and WWF wrestling have never been one of my favorites but he sure did change my mind last night. He was great and the kids loved him and anyone who is willing to get totally slimed like that gets my personal stamp of approval.

Fergie is one busy lady these days but one thing not on the agenda at the moment, are kids. Let’s see what she has been up too. First, Fergie is newly married to hottie, Josh Duhamel. She is going to be touring this summer with The Black Eyed Peas and she just dyed her hair brown. Her big accomplishment of the moment is her new shoe line that she has been promoting. In fact many of her fans found her signing autographs at Nordstrom’s in Los Angeles to promote her new line. With so much on her plate at the moment Fergie see no time for babies, but once things settle down and the tour ends you just never know.

I just heard this feel good story and I wanted to share. Jay Leno has just announced that he is going to be doing a free concert in Detroit. He will be performing at The Palace of Auburn Hills on April 7th. Why Detroit you ask? He picked it because currently Detroit has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 11.6% and this is his way of giving back. He says he was actually inspired by President Obama, who says, in these difficult times we all have to do our part. Tickets will be handed out on an honor system and Jay really wants the tickets to go to people who are unemployed. He wants these people who are down on their luck right now to come and have some fun and not worry about costs.  Pepsi is sponsoring the show and  and even the parking will be free. Leno is even considering bringing the show to other cities if it is a success. I would bet he probably needs to start working on an itinerary. I hope more stars start giving back and doing the right thing to help support their country and their fans.