|
April 12, 2007 - Haley Scarnato booted out of American Idol |
|
 |
Los Angeles, California -- Haley Scarnato's
legs could only hold her for so long.
Howard Stern remained placated Wednesday when the
24-year-old from San Antonio was booted from
American Idol, giving Sanjaya Malakar yet another
week in the spotlight. |
|
When all is said and sung, however, a short-haired
Malakar held his own better than Scarnato did on
Tuesday's performance show, during which the
aspiring pop stars sang Latin music and received
tips from newly minted crossover star Jennifer
Lopez, whose first Spanish-language album dropped
Mar. 27. |
|
While Malakar's soft take on "Bésame Mucho" was rightfully
deemed "not horrible" by Simon Cowell, Scarnato's version of
Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around" only served in
pointing the long-legged beauty toward the door.
Both Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul expressed their
feelings—although not as rudely as they did last week, when
all they did was share a giggle and ask Simon what he
thought—and then Cowell told Scarnato, who was clad in
short-shorts and a blousy top, that she had the right idea.
"Wear the least amount of clothes as possible," the acerbic
Brit advised.
Scarnato, who by making it into the top eight will get to
tour with her fellow finalists this summer, was joined in
the bottom three by Chris Richardson who, although his
performance of the Rob Thomas-Santana collaboration "Smooth"
was dubbed sexy by Abdul and refreshingly contemporary by
Cowell, tends to get outshined come voting time, and
now-weekly bottom-feeder Phil Stacey, who is probably the
favorite to make an exit next week.
Although Stacey's vocal on "Maria Maria" (another modern
Santana tune, this time with the Product G&B) was quite
nice, he once again failed to connect emotionally with the
song, according to the judging triad.
In the clear, as always, were Blake Lewis (his version of
Marc Anthony's "I Need to Know" was the performance of the
night, per Cowell), Melinda Doolittle (although she finally
stumbled with her take on Dean Martin's "Sway," again per
Cowell), LaKisha Jones and Jordin Sparks.
And Sanjaya Malakar, of course, who has never been privy to
the feeling of being in the bottom three, proving that more
than 35 million people can be wrong.
Despite the fact that Idol viewership was down for the fifth
week in a row last week, pulling in a "mere" 26.7 million
and 26.1 million on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively,
viewer participation is going up. Ryan Seacrest said that
more than 35 million phone and text-message votes were
received, up from last week, meaning two million additional
people took an interest or 15 people were really busy.
To keep the show rolling in between pronouncements of "you
are safe" and "we'll find out… after the break," a couple of
seasoned professionals were on hand, as usual, to entertain
the crowd.
Perhaps because he didn't get enough tweenybopper adulation
when he performed "The Sweet Escape" with Gwen Stefani a
couple of weeks ago, Akon was back Wednesday to perform
"Don't Matter" off of his sophomore album "Konvicted."
And Lopez kept the week's Latin Music theme going with "Qué
Hiciste" ("What Did You Do) from Como Ama Una Mujer (How a
Woman Loves), which is currently number one on Billboard's
Latin chart.
When Seacrest asked her to describe her judging style with
this season's group of Idol contenders, Lopez categorized
herself as one of the nice ones.
"I guess I come from the Paula school of criticism," she
said. "Not that we don't need our Simon."
Next week, the name of the game will be country music, and
the contestants will be coached by Carrie Underwood's
favorite singer, Martina McBride. |
|
