Yeah, I know this is a movie blog, but Paulagate cannot be ignored...

Good day to you,

I know this is a movie blog, but because we are in the thick of things with the Idol, this is pretty much my Idol blog until the next person is named our American Idol. Plus, because I've been working like a mad fiend, I haven't watched any movies in about a week... not since I saw Baby Mama last weekend.

So, here's my take on "this week on Idol".

Tuesday night - Neil Diamond night

First off, I love Neil Diamond music. I might now know all the words (or titles for that matter) to his songs, but I know fair few... and I knew over 1/2 the songs the Idols sang this week. In fact, I'm listening to some Neil Diamond "I Am I Said" right this very minute - what can I say, I was inspired.

So, Tuesday night... after getting his a$$ handed to him last week for an altogether not too bad rendition of "Memory", Jason Castro led off the night with a decent performance of one of my Neil Diamond favorites - "Forever in Blue Jeans". True, I usually think of Will Ferrell doing his Neil Diamond impression to this song, but little Jason Castro held his own while strumming his guitar and channeling the Neil... it wasn't the best performance ever, but it wasn't bad. (more on that later...). This all comes after the pre-packaged tape that shows Jason forgetting his lyrics in front of the Neil and then smacking himself in the forehead... And *this* all coming after last week's incident of not knowing "Memory" was sung by a cat AND a popular song... (more on that later)

David Cook did well (of course), though it was hard to make out what he was saying part of the time. Brooke looked like a deer in the headlights during "I'm a Believer" (poor song choice for her... she looked in a panic the whole time). Little Archuleta looked like he was the star of Karaoke Idol with his "Sweet Caroline" performance - no one should have sung this song, not even him. It's too cheesy... "Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet Caroline... DUNT DUNT DUHHHHHHHH Good times never seemed so goooooooooood!" Come on... And how do the judges never call him out on squatting in one spot and shaking his microphone around like it's some sort of magic stick that helps him sing his runs. And then Syesha... who botched her key change and had her fake smile plastered on her face like a Barbie doll.

And then even though Ryan told us the judges wouldn't make comments until after everyones second song... all the Idols were wrangled up and brought out to the center of the stage for a mass judging/execution. Randy "Yo dogged" his way through hyping up Archie and then we get to Paula.

Hey, hey Paula... why do you even bother to open your mouth at all?

She slammed Castro on his first song, then proceeded to slam him on his second song, telling him his charm is gone and that he's not even putting in any effort to make it into the top 4.

But wait Paula, he only sang 1 song. Everyone only sang 1 song so far.

When Randy, Simon and Ryan finally cut her off and told her to only judge Castro's 1st (and ONLY) song, she tried to cover for herself by saying she was looking at David Cook's notes.

So, David's charm is gone and he's not putting in any effort to make it into the top 4?

NOOOOOOOOOOO... Paula stops, smiles, and tells David Cook that he's fantastic.

So, if he's fantastic, then why did you say that all those things you just told Jason were Davids notes? Wait a tic... that doesn't make any sense.

Paula finishes her babbling and Simon cuts to the chase, swiftly knocking each Idol into their place before round 2.

As we cut to commercial, the whole of America and I are wondering what the hell just happened. I'm still scratching my head as the Fox commercials indicate the show is about ready to start up again... cue the music (you know which music I'm talking about) and there sits poor Jason Castro... stuck singing his second song ("September Morn" - swoon) just minutes after he was told it lacked charm... before he even sang. Wrap your mind around that, America.

I enjoyed Castro's "September Morn" performance. He's usually awkward when he's not able to hide behind his guitar, but this wasn't bad. He commanded what little chunk of the stage he took up and looked/sounded confident. But he got bad reviews from the judges. He does need to mix it up a bit more, but it wasn't awful.

Cook rocked it again and then Brooke KILLED "I Am I Said". Holy smokes, I forgot how much I liked that song, and I really liked Brooke's performance. It was minimalist and raw and vulnerable and just great. But we all knew she didn't have a chance in hell at winning the whole show.

And then there was Archie... singing "America" (which I think Cook should have sung). And it was CHEESTASTIC... more so than "Sweet Caroline" because of the flag and the constant repetition of the word "America". We get it, the song is about America, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, most of America loves David A. I am not most of America. I do not love David A. Sorry Charlie Bucket.

And then there's Syesha... who I like even less than David Archuleta. I cannot stress how much I wanted her off the show this week (well, really since week 1, but alas, she's still here).

Tuesday ended and there still was much speculation about the whole Paula incident.

Wednesday morning I heard they were going to talk about it on the Today show, so i taped that to watch when I got home from work. Those are hard hitting journalists on the show, so i thought I'd get an answer. But noooooooooooo, they just said Paula was confused. COME ON TODAY SHOW. Something was up, and we need to get to the bottom of it.

In between 5:30 PM and 9:00 PM when the Idol elimination show started, I tried to look up some theories on-line to see what the real deal was with Paula. I read so many different stories and none of them really make sense to me...

Here are the stories:
* Paula saw Jason's rehearsal earlier in the day and had notes based off of that - that's cool that she saw rehearsal, but she shouldn't be judging a rehearsal, she should be judging the live performance right in front of her eyes. Someone could have a perfect rehearsal but a crap performance... so is it fair to judge what the American people haven't seen, or judge their crap performance?

*Paula said that the judges were busy writing notes and she got confused - well, she wasn't taking any notes during Castro's 1st performance... she was sitting in her chair bopping her head and snapping her fingers along to his music number. No pencil or paper in sight... she seemed to be enjoying herself an awful lot.

*Some people are saying that what the judges say is scripted for them... which I could believe to some extent. What bothers me though is that though Castro's performances were pretty un-extraordinary, they weren't God-awful either. Yet the judges harp on him, especially these past 2 weeks. He has got one of the bigger fanbases and it's been said in some tabloidish magazines that executive producer Nigel Lythgoe thinks that Castro should have been voted out last week instead of Carly. There was something on EW.com that said Castro was ready to go home. (Yet other sites say that he says he is in it to win it and enjoys being on the show)... Who are we to believe? And who is behind all this negative press and anti-Jason Castro movement?

I know my parents aren't Jason fans, but I am... and not just because he's super adorable and has nice eyes and whatnot... he's got a soothing voice and a cool singer/songwriter vibe that I really dig. My mom calls him a "Space cadet" and I think that this is aided by the horrible pre-packaged materials they show regarding him on the show (he does come across as spacey a lot). If you can remember back to the Top 24 or Top 20, he admitted that he was really bad at interviews... and the show has really played that up.

Luckily, Wednesday night proved that Jason has spunk and the ability to answer a question like an intelligent human being.

So, elimination night always starts with a group number... this week was a medley of Neil Diamond tunes, with Jason starting things off with "Cracklin' Rose" - and though the group number was pretty crappy as a whole (mostly due to the girls voices not blending - yikes), Jason gave a strong vocal, and was lip synching everyone else's parts as he danced around in the background. He probably thought he was in the bottom 2, but at least he looked like he was having fun.

After the group number and before any contestants got called out, Seacrest brought up the 1 and only mention of "last night" and dispelled rumors by saying Paula is part of the Idol family and that they love her.

WAIT A MINUTE... who cares about Paula? I want to know what really happened. Or at least for someone to apologize to Jason for slamming his song before he sang it. Or to admit to the American people that the Idol is kind of shady. But nooooooo... there was no more mention of anything and no apologies. Not cool Idol, not cool.

Castro was the first contestant to be brought out to find out if he made it to the couch or was in the bottom 2. When Seacrest asked him about his critiques from the previous night, Castro shocked everyone by giving an articulate response regarding song choice and arrangement. Props to you , Castro, you probably aren't as dumb as people think you are. And then he was directed toward the couch... saved once again by his massive fanbase (I called for an hour and a half... that kid won't win the whole show, but I'll be damned if he doesn't earn his way into the Top 3).

And of course the Davids were safe. And as much as I wanted Syesha to go home, I knew it was going to be Brooke. That poor girl, she really took it hard. I felt bad while I watched her fumble the beginning of "I Am I Said" and then choke her way through the song... that must suck trying to sing right after you get your hopes and dreams of being the American Idol swiftly pulled out from under your designer shoes.

So, next week is Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame music... I guess there are 500 songs to chose from. Everyone has a wide variety to pick through, so if they botch their song choices, it's their own fault (or, their Dad's fault, if they are David A...)

Here's hoping for an all male Top 3 and a smooth show (and maybe a real explanation about what happened this past Tuesday... No? Didn't think so, FOX).

Happy Idoling :)