Brooke White was my favorite female contestant of American Idol season 7. (If you don't believe me, see here!) But sadly, I kind of always knew she wouldn't win. That's not a diss on her. On the contrary, I always knew this sweet singer-songwriter--with her gently honeyed vocals, throwback flower-child style, and Carole King comparisons--would never beat out obvious powerhouse contenders with big, showoffy, blowhardy voices, despite her equally obvious talent.

However, season 7 panned out just fine for Brooke. The piano girl actually made it to fifth place--higher than some might have expected early on, when she seemed like more of a dark horse--and in the process I believe Brooke and some of her fellow season 7 troubadour types (like Jason Castro and David Cook) changed the game for American Idol, paving the way for pianists like Matt Giraud and Scott MacIntyre and acoustic strummers like season 8 winner Kris Allen. Brooke White definitely made a mark on Idol, despite not fitting

This weekend The X Factor--the British version of American Idol, basically, and the show that spawned Leona Lewis--premiered in the U.K., switching to the even more dramatic live-audition format of Simon Cowell's other big across-the-pond reality hit, Britain's Got Talent. And auditioning Saturday night, non-coincidentally in the all-important "pimp slot," was hunky and likable schoolteacher Danyl Johnson. And this teacher gave an A+ performance, for sure.

How good was Danyl? Well, he managed to accomplish the unthinkable: Danyl not only made Simon Cowell smile, but he inspired Simon to give him a standing ovation...AND Simon even declared Danyl's audition (of the Joe Cocker version of "With A Little Help From My Friends") "the single best first audition I have ever heard."

Yes, you read that right: THE. BEST. EVER.

*SEE DANYL'S AUDITION HERE TO SEE WHAT GOT SIMON SO EXCITED*

Life on the road can admittedly get a little monotonous for musicians. But the American Idols are seemingly wholesome folk, so to pass the time on the Idols Live Tour yesterday, Kris Allen and Anoop Desai resorted not to the usual sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, but to texts, skunks, and rock 'n' roll.

Yesterday the two Idols, along with tourmate Danny Gokey, mysteriously adopted a clay skunk that they christened Wolfgang Allen-Desai. The skunk apparently took up residence in Kris "Pocket Idol" Allen's pocket, and was featured in a series of increasingly amusing Twitpics: staring pensively through the Idol tour bus window, hanging out with EW's Michael Slezak, testing microphones at soundcheck, talking to "his girl" on an iPhone, and (perhaps most memorably) having guyliner (skunkliner?) applied by his "cool uncle," Adam Lambert.

The Wolfgang phenomenon quickly exploded in the Twitterverse among fans hungry for some fresh, unfiltered interaction with their Idols. By the end of the day

Last night on the Beyonce-themed second episode of America's Best Dance Crew 4, as well as on the season premiere last week, all three judges glowingly and rapturously praised Artistry In Motion, a promising crew of "real women" led by plus-sized So You Think You Can Dance alum Donyelle Jones.

This week, AIM received over-the-top props for their Beyonce "Diva" dance, in which their challenge was to perform with a generous length of chain (probably the toughest Beyonce test of the week, for any of the crews). And the AIM girls were additionally pretty much declared role models for the entire female species, not to mention inspirations for all female dancers larger than a size 2 who refuse to exploit their T and/or A to get ahead in the dance world.

But then, after the final dance-off last night...guess who the judges decided to keep instead of Artistry In Motion? Afroborike: a troupe of salsa hoochies whose most memorable move during their "Beautiful Liar" routine was when the female