‘Idol’ Chatter: Katharine’s Boyfriend (May 25, 2006)

“The American dream. I am living the American dream.”  That’s pretty much tells you in a nutshell how Taylor Hicks feels about winning the title.  I know I have a lot of Soul Patrol readers. So, congratulations to all of you for sticking with it and voting your little hearts out each and every week.  Plain and simple, Taylor had the biggest fan base of everyone else on the show. His fans never let him fall into the bottom group. To his fans Taylor says, “I never dreamed in a million years that America would receive me as well as they have and I’m just very thankful for all those people who have voted for me.”

Backstage we wondered just what exactly was going through Taylor’s mind as he was standing there, “don’t fall to the floor. don’t fall to the floor. don’t let your knees buckle and then they called it and I almost lost it.”  As for that winning song, that the judges didn’t exactly love, he told us he made some changes, “Well, I tried to make it as much my own as possible. It was a little different at first and I ‘Taylorized’ it as much as I  could. If I had my own choice I would be singing my own congratulatory song but I think I could connect with the lyrics and the music. I think its going to do really well. I’m excited about it.”

This morning, I remembered back to when I first interviewed Taylor and the rest of the “Idol” wannabes back in March, when the Top 24 were announced. On the red carpet it was just incredible to see the change in everyone. These sweet kids and young adults turned into media savvy self-promoters with entourages that include managers, agents and publicists.  No one should be surprised by this. Being thrown into the spotlight and told where to go, what to say, how to act and knowing that 30 million people know your name would change anyone.  Just ask Taylor, “It could really change you because it’s not a gradual process for fame. It’s instant fame.”   His advice for staying straight and not falling into the trappings of fame is “If you just stay true to who you are as a person and as an artist you will be the same person in the end.” 

The moment everyone is talking about around here is the reemergence of Clay Aiken. Folks here have dubbed his new look a cross between KD Lang and the Beatles. Inside the theater, he sounded amazing but I don’t think he wasn’t expecting shocked auditioner, Michael, to start trying to duet with him on the song  At one point off-camera the stage manager came out and told Ryan to sit him down. That’s why the chair was brought out and you see Ryan place him there.

So, it turns out all those message board rumors about Prince coming on the show this season were true. I have to say the producers did a great job keeping it a secret. We found out about it around 15 minutes into the show when Prince’s assistant emailed Shaun Robinson the news. I’m guessing that was on purpose. By the time we got the news, it was too late to ask anyone about it on the red carpet. As for how they got Prince, Nigel Lythgoe filled us in, “we were speaking earlier in the series, as you know and Prince wanted to come on the show. We couldn’t fit it in in his date book and we just spoke and kept it very secret. It was sort of on the basis if we really kept it secret and didn’t even introduce him he would be there and we wouldn’t tell anybody and nobody knew and it was one of those moments.”  It was a great moment. It was the only performance where the entire theater was on its feet.

You will never guess what show is Simon Cowell’s guilty pleasure. He’s a “Baywatch” fan. Yes, its true. Simon admits he’s an avid watcher of the jiggly lifeguards in bikinis.  As some of you may know, Simon actually helped produced one of David Hasselhoff’s records in Germany.  “If I can only say Goodbye”  I guess that’s how he got introduced to the series.  It must live on in syndication somewhere but I haven’t seen it on in L.A. in a long time.

Yesterday, an interesting email was forwarded to me with irate Katherine McPhee bashers claiming her dad had a connection to Fox and he was paying firms to vote for her.  It sounded silly to me but we figured why not ask Katherine  to set the record straight, “it’s ridiculous. basically there is mean people in the world who don’t have things to do with their lives. That’s a sad part of this business. There are always people trying to bring you down and my dad has never worked with Fox. He hasn’t worked in television in years. The only person he worked with was Dick Clark. Dick Clark Communications which is different from Dick Clark Productions and why would just because Dick Clark works with Ryan Seacrest have anything to do with “American Idol.” It’s like people are trying to make some conspiracy, and there is no conspiracy. So, I made it here on my own thank you very much.”

If you are wondering what Katherine’s boyfriend looks like be sure and check out Access Hollywood tonight, plus our photo. Our cameras were the only ones to catch him backstage hanging with her family and being a good boyfriend and carrying her shoes and dress bag.

Finally, my sincere apologies go out to Ryan Seacrest for the incident that happened backstage. While we were waiting for Taylor, Shaun started interviewing Ryan who had to run off to do his radio show. We had been waiting for Taylor for about 10 minutes and he of course had to pick that moment to appear backstage. That in TV is what we call the money shot. The shot we were waiting to get. So, as Ryan is talking to Shaun I whispered to my camera man to pull off of Ryan and get the shot of Taylor. It took about 8 seconds before he realized what happened and remarked, “what happened to the camera? Shaun, that’s how important we are. Taylor you just missed a great moment Shaun and I were talking, clearly not important enough. they went to you and you should its the American idol ladies and gentleman.”   He was laughing about it but I still felt bad. Of course, the back story is that I used to be a producer on Ryan’s talk show. So, we know each other. I knew I could get away with it.  Plus, Ryan is the managing editor for E News. So, he gets the importance of the money shot.   Sorry again, Ryan but thanks for being a good sport! 

My thanks to everyone who read Idol Chatter this season.  Your emails and questions were great and I look forward to providing you with even more scoop when Idol Season Six rolls around next January.  For all sorts of insider information on your favorite TV shows be sure to start checking my Dish of Salt blog starting next week.

— Laura Saltman

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