As I excitedly prepare to watch the kickoff of the So You Think You Can Dance top 20 competitive round tonight, I'm still confused as to why this season's Brandon Bryant has become such a polarizing and "controversial" figure.

Last week when the SYTYCD top 20 were revealed, judge/choreographer Mia Michaels kind of ruined the moment for Brandon (a repeat auditioner from last season) by barking at him: "I can't take you. What you bring to the floor annoys the sh*t out of me. In Vegas, you just rubbed me the wrong way."

Lil' C was less nasty, as he is always one calm and cool cat. But he too expressed his doubts about Brandon's talent and alleged bad attitude.

Fellow judges Mary Murphy and Debbie Allen quickly jumped to Brandon's defense--Mary more vociferously, of course--and Brandon remained even cooler and calmer than Lil' C, confidently telling his detractors, "It's ON!"

But I was not as calm. I was a bit angry, actually. Why all the Brandon hate? The guy is incredible!

But then I

So this week, Adam Lambert's salivatingly-awaited, serpentine-accessorized Rolling Stone cover issue comes out. And I mean that literally. Yes, it's in this RS interview that Adam comes out of his fabulously appointed, leather-pants-filled closet to announce what all the world already knew: That he is (gasp!) gay.

"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay," Adam correctly states, adding: "I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it." (As if there was ever ANYTHING about Adam Lambert's public persona that seemed shy or self-effacing!)

Yeah, yeah, I know--not so shocking. Not nearly as shocking as Lambert losing on Idol, really. It's not like Adam ever even slightly denied that he is homosexual. This is a guy who, on the most exciting Idol finale ever, not only performed in drag-queen-supplied Bob Mackie angel wings and platform Kiss boots from his "private collection," but also took on the Freddie Mercury role for the gay-rights Queen anthem "We Are The

You may not have heard of Ferras. But if you've been watching American Idol for a while, you may recognize the maudlin strains of his tune "Hollywood's Not America," which was the official farewell song that fittingly soundtracked season 7's Hollywood Week. Here's a clip of Ferras performing the song in the Yahoo! Music studio last year to jog your memory, plus an interview in which Ferras talks about how the song was chosen for the show:

Anyway, I'm sure Ferras was hoping "Hollywood's Not America" would do for his career what another Idol goodbye theme, "Bad Day," did for Daniel Powter's. But, sadly, that did not happen. If it had, I wouldn't have had to start this blog with the sentence "You may not have heard of Ferras," right?

Oh well. To be honest, this MOR ballad didn't really properly represent Ferras's musical style, which was more majestic and grandiose in a total Elton/Mika/Bowie vein. So I am happy to report today that--according to a couple of Ferras's own excited Twitter

Some glass-half-full-viewing Adam Lambert fans argue that it's a blessing in disguise that Adam came in second on American Idol. And I'm beginning to see their point.

Last week, Kris Allen played the big annual Wal-Mart stockholders' meeting, and today he sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA finals game. Something tells me both settings were far more suited to Kris's heartland soft-rock than to Adam's glittery, guylinered theatricality...especially the latter scenario, considering that Adam's most (in)famous past rendition of the national anthem took place at Burning Man and was accompanied by a cast of bleating, larger-than-life farm animals:

Yup, maybe Adam really dodged a bullet, after all, by losing.

Anyway, that being said, I must say Kris did a pretty good job handling the national anthem at the NBA game today. It's a very difficult song to sing, but he's had plenty of practice singing unsingable songs lately, since he's been saddled with that challengingly syllable-crammed