Reality Rocks
  • As regularreaders of Reality Rocks well know,my bar for bad TV is set soooo low, it'spractically subterranean. I'll happilyspend a lazy Sunday watching a day-long marathon of For The Love Of Ray J or GoneCountry 3, not caring even as I feel my brain-stem cells die off one by one as the daygoes on. But there was one reality show at which I always drew the line of goodtaste. And that show was Rock Star: INXS

    Yes, Iwas postively addicted to Rock Star: Supernova and I stilldesperately hope that a season of RockStar: Velvet Revolver or Rock Star: TheDarkness is in pre-production now. But back in 2005, I honestly found the idea of replacing aDEAD lead singer--in particular a dead lead singer who died at age 36 underdubious and perhaps downright depraved circumstances (we shall never know for sure what went on in Michael Hutchence's hotel room the night he died)--via an Idol-styletalent show truly disgusting. And besides, INXS'siconic Michael Hutchence was not an easy man to replace.

    That

    Read More »from J.D. Fortune Loses Fortune
  • A quick YouTube search for "Adam Lambert" generates hundreds of results, including footage of him in a production of Wicked; a video of him sporting peroxided Billy Idol hair and a Scissor Sisters/Darkness-worthy magenta unitard at an Art4Life benefit concert; and cameraphone clips of him wistfully warbling the existential anthem "Dust In The Wind" at a Hollywood cabaret.

    There are also dozen of salivating fan video tributes, which I think bodes well for him when he sings on American Idol next week.

    But of all the Adam Lambert videos out there on the Interweb, I most dig this one of him glamming it up Hedwig The Angry Inch-style, complete with Adam Ant warpaint, vacuum-sealed pleather pants, a man-corset, a flock of firedancers, and an octave-shattering rock 'n' roll screech that indicates he is one of the few Idol contestants this season fully capable of taking on a kiss-of-death Queen or Heart song:

    Yes, I know I criticize some Idol contestants for being too over-the-top (Tatiana,

    Read More »from Introducing…Adam Glambert!
  • It's not fashionable to say so, but I've always had a soft spot for Taylor Hicks.

    He won me over with his risky but endearing Ray Lamontagne cover on American Idol season 5, and I was thrilled when he shockingly sneaked up from behind to beat out snooty Katharine McPhee by a landslide later that year.

    I interviewed Taylor once, and...not to brag, but he told me it was one of the best interviews he'd ever done.

    He played a Yahoo! charity event once and sang the Yahoo! yodel, like, seriously eight or nine times without ever being prompted.

    I even read the guy's autobiography, Heart Full Of Soul. (It was kind of boring--the most scandalous segment was when he admitted to um, inhaling on one occasion--but I finished the entire thing, almost like it was a homework assignment, out of some sense of duty.)

    So I was little bummed when Taylor's career didn't take off in exactly a Clarkson/Underwood-esque manner. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that he was the first Idol winner to not go

    Read More »from Taylor Remade: Hicks Returns
  • So tonight, the first three finalists to make the all-important top 12 were announced, and I for one was surprised by how much I actually cared. I mean, after seven-and-counting seasons, gawd knows how many blogs on this subject, and several alleged vote-rigging scandals that would presumably render all results shows obsolete anyway, you'd think I'd be a jaded industry schmuck by now, instead of some dorky fangirl. But no. I was actually one of the 24 million voting last night, and tonight I was still very excited to see if all my speed-dialing efforts paid off.

    But first, I had to be subjected to one of the show's patented painful cruise-ship-style singalong numbers--you know, the ones in which a bunch of supposedly talented singers join forces, somehow manage to completely cancel each other out and drag the overall onstage talent level down to that of a remedial junior high production of Rent, and make me question if I should have speed-voted for any of them at all. The song

    Read More »from American Idol Results: Danny vs. Tatiana, Good vs. Evil
  • Finally, tonight was the night when the fate of American Idol was placed squarely back in the hands of America. The hands of The People. No more all-powerful judges smugly handing out golden tickets, callously tossing contestants' Polaroids into the trash, and forcing hapless hopefuls like Cody Sheldon to participate in sudden-death singoffs. Tonight, the chosen 36 semi-finalists started singing for the viewers' votes, not the judges' praise, on live television. And this was where the real competition began.

    THIS is American Idol, as Ryan Seacrest (he of the Simon-described new Single White Female haircut) would say.

    So tonight the first batch of 12 singers (apparently/hopefully chosen at random) stepped up to the mic, with the resultant top male and top female vote-getter each getting through to the top 12, followed by the next highest ranker (be it male or female, thus sort of lessening the strict gender quotas of past seasons). Their goal tonight was--as Paula Abdul semi-coherently

    Read More »from American Idol: Let The Voting Begin!
  • Today must be Opposite Day, because parody rapper SeanieMic has released some Weird Al-style comedy music video claiming that VH1 is the worst channel ever.

    Huh? Doesn't he mean BEST channel ever? After all, this is the network that brought us such Emmy-worthy programs as...

    For The Love Of Ray J!

    New York Goes To Hollywood!

    Real Chance Of Love!

    The Pick-Up Artist!

    I Love Money AND...

    I Love Money 2!

    What is Seanie THINKING?

    Well, whether or not I agree with Seanie's anti-VH1 rap/rant, I must admit that his new "State Of Reality" video--which is set to the melody of Pharrell & Kanye West's "Number One" and skewers all my fave celebreality stars, even perpetual TV bachelors Bret Michaels and Flavor Flav--is actually pretty funny:

    Read More »from VH1: “World’s Worst Channel”?
  • After last night's Idol blog, there seems to be some confusion, most of it caused by yours truly. I apparently contradicted myself multiple times last night, praising some contestants for being "good TV" (Nathaniel Marshall, Norman Gentle) while criticizing others for being nothing more than ratings-magnet drama queens (Tatiana Del Toro, for one). And I additionally applauded other contestants, like Leneshe Young and Jasmine Murray, for being mellow and drama-free. So which is it, some readers understandably queried. What exactly do I want from American Idol? Do I want good TV, or do I want good singers?

    The answer, dear readers, is I want both. Duh!

    Sorry I wasn't clearer last night. Yes, I admit I enjoy all the drama and hype and ridiculousness that comes with AmIdol. Contestant catfighting, awesomely awful auditions...bring it on, I say. But ultimately, if all a contestant has to offer is "good TV," then I'm not going to buy their not-so-good albums once their TV show is over, am

    Read More »from American Idol: Top 36 Revealed!
  • Well, this is a big week for American Idol season 8. It's the week when the all-powerful judges shuffle around contestants' Polaroid pictures like they're playing some master game of Jenga, and in the end they select the top 36 that will perform for the American voters. Tonight they tossed a few Polaroids into the trashbin that I think should have stayed on their casting table for at least another episode, while there were a few other Polaroids that, um, I didn't think deserved a chance to develop. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

     

    Some of the people who made it through, which I am happy about, included:

    Norman Gentle - Omigod omigod omigod! I can't believe that a wacky unknown comic, who clearly auditioned with no greater aspiration than becoming the next Milo "No Sex Allowed" Turk, has made it this far. But I'm not going to question the gift. Norman may be dishwater-dull whenever he performs as "himself," aka Nick Mitchell, but when he wisely decides to put on his alter ego's trademark

    Read More »from Hollywood Weak: More Idols Sent Home
  • She was upagainst some illustrious competition: Raphael Saadiq, Eric Benet, Boyz II Men...eventhe legendary Al Green, who wonderfully performed on the Grammy telecast with JustinTimberlake tonight.

    But when Whitney Houston cracked openthat envelope and read the name of the winner for Best R&B Album, the name sheread was...Jennifer Hudson.

    I am sovery happy for J.Hud, after all she'sbeen through with the slaying of her family last October, that she can now puta Grammy statuette next to that Oscar on her mantelpiece. And I don't believe she got her Grammy due to sympathy votes,either. She earned it the old-fashioned way: with a great album, period.

    I only wishthat Jennifer's late mother, brother, and nephew were here to witness her triumph tonight. I'mkind of surprised Jen didn't mentionthem at length in her acceptance speech (she simply thanked "those in heaven and those who are with me today"), but I suppose she wanted to keep things upbeat.

    Anyway, I'm sure her relatives were with

    Read More »from Jennifer Hudson In Grammy Spotlight!
  • Everyone knows that rock stars are supposed to be skinny. Mick Jagger weighs about 60 pounds soaking wet. Pete Wentz probably weighs less than his new baby with Ashlee Simpson. Scott "Skeletor" Weiland is pretty much a human stick figure. Even Blues Traveler's formerly mountainous John Popper underwent gastric bypass surgery to reduce himself from a mountain to more of a medium-sized molehill.

    OK, perhaps these are not the healthiest examples of rock-star slimness. But aspiring rocker Dan Evans--one of the most memorable contestants in the history of the weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser--went about things more reasonably and old-fashionedly, losing 136 pounds over the course of his season's 13 weeks. Only then, when Dan felt he'd honed a physique more suitable for an aspiring singer-songwriter (not a spindly heroin-chic physique, mind you, just a nicely chiseled, somewhat pinup-worthy one), did he embark on his music career in earnest.

    Below is his debut video, "Goin' All

    Read More »from Dan Evans’ Fat Chance

Pagination

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