‘Idol’ Chatter: May 10, 2006

This morning, Simon Cowell made his finale predictions on the “Today” show. He thinks it’s going to come down to Chris Daughtry and Taylor Hicks. In a rare moment, Simon actually admitted he got something wrong. Shocking, I know!  He thought Kellie Pickler would have been in the top three. I’m guessing he meant this more based on her personality rather than her singing ability.Kellie got a huge welcome home parade in her small town of Albemarle, North Carolina. Fans lined the street for a glimpse of their favorite Idol, who waved to fans from her perch atop a red Ford Mustang convertible. The big shock wasn’t the number of fans who showed up but that Kellie chopped all her hair off. Gone are her signature long blonde locks. Kellie is now sporting a short sassy bob cut. On stage, as she spoke to fans about never giving up on their dreams, Kellie was joined by her grandpa, brother, best friend and her father, Clyde Pickler, Jr., who was recently released from Florida State Prison. Kellie broke down in tears while introducing her dad, “We all make mistakes and I am so glad that he’s back in my life.” She then gave the crowd what they wanted, singing her heart out on the National Anthem.Last week, TV Guide held a photo shoot with the remaining Idols for their cover story, out on newsstands next week. Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, Katharine McPhee, Elliott Yamin and Paris Bennett were all still in the running when the shoot happened.  My guess is when the issue comes out only the three remaining Idols will be on the cover. The other two may not even get their photo in the issue. That’s showbiz for you. A Fox camera crew was on set catching candid moments with everyone, like Katharine being told by the makeup artist that she had been putting her false eyelashes on backwards. Also overheard was a conversation they were having where Katharine was telling the makeup artist that before she auditioned for “American Idol,” she had a talent agent and was going after mainly “teen angst” type roles. It was also funny to watch Taylor and Elliott get their hair flat-ironed. I thought this was only a Ryan Seacrest hair tool.    Taylor had this bit of advice to offer to future Idol contestants, “You don’t really have much time to rest but your downtime, whenever you get the opportunity, you should.”   He has so far resisted dying his trademark salt and pepper hair but it hasn’t been easy. The show’s hair stylist, Dean Banowetz keeps a bottle of dye nearby at all time much to Taylor’s dismay, “ The dye is always around. It’s like this nagging thing that follows me.” Dying his hair is still not out of the realm of possibility though, “There is a grand finale. You got to go all out for the grand finale.” Chris admitted he is trying not to read all the stuff that has been written about him, “I really do try not to get into all of that stuff because it tends to mess with your head. I kind of like to stay focused and stay in my groove and not let anyone’s outside opinions effect what I’m doing.”That includes the flack he took for choosing a Queen song a few weeks ago that no one had really heard, “I want to have my own identity. At the end of the day I want to make sure I’m proud of what I did and it wasn’t because I was swayed by Simon or any of the other judges to pick something that the public is going to know. I want to make sure whatever song I do is me and I’m doing that song justice.”No more nerves for Elliott Yamin. He says hitting the stage is the best part of his week,  “I feel like that’s my haven.” Even Elliott realizes that he has changed the most of all the Idols, “I’ve come along way – the way I look, the way I sound and with the way I perform and it’s all good, it’s all better. Just to make it this far is a huge accomplishment for me personally and anything else that comes along is just extra, it’s just bonus.”Katharine took the time to address a couple of controversies surrounding her. First was, that while it was difficult that she couldn’t go home to sleep in her own bed (because she lives so close), she knew she had to follow the rules. The second was that she was secretly meeting with her vocal coach mother to rehearse, “I don’t have time to actually go all the way back to my house and have my mom work on the song that I already have worked on for an hour or two with the other vocal coaches.”Up until now I haven’t let anyone know that Katharine McPhee and I are actually neighbors. She lives about a mile from my house. So, I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me when I stopped in the local nail salon yesterday, for a polish change, that McPheever buttons were everywhere. Turns out the McPhee family and I share the same nail spa and the entire place has been voting furiously for her. Sometimes it’s such a small world. In a shallow town like Los Angeles, it’s nice to see a sense of community does exist somewhere. My apologies to everyone who sent in questions for Nigel Lythgoe last week. Our interview with him was cancelled last minute because he claimed to be “locked in an edit room” on Monday. He wanted to re-schedule for next week but I will be out of town on business, so we had to cancel altogether.I’m disappointed because I was looking forward to grilling him on a variety of topics! 

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