Regular readers know I love me some underdogs. Danny Noriega and Josiah Leming on American Idol, Fanny Pak on America's Best Dance Crew 2, Sisley on The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll...for some reason, I always seem to root for the less obvious contender. I don't do this to be contrary. I don't do it to generate "controversy." And I certainly don't do it because I enjoy getting a jillion posts on my message boards telling me I'm fulla shiz and Yahoo! should fire me.

What can I say? I guess I'm just one of those types that prefers the road less traveled. Or the contestant less voted.

Case in point: This just-completed sixth season of Nashville Star. As pleased as I was when Melissa Lawson won last night, I was still really rooting for the dark horse, Shawn Mayer. And I also must admit, from episode one I had soft spots in my heart for Third Town (the Vegas cutups who were actually eleventh-hour understudies), Charley Jenkins (the one guy whom the public never even had the chance to

As many people reading this already know, last night on Nashville Star it all came down to finalists Rob and Russell:

Just kidding! These are crew guys who were standing in for Melissa Lawson and Gabe Garcia during the finale rehearsal taping yesterday afternoon. But you have to give them kudos for how they emoted, as they pretended to hear Billy Ray Cyrus announce the results...

In all seriousness, the real winner was Melissa, proud mother of five. And not only did I predict she'd win in my blog last week, I declared her a frontrunner back when the season began. Once again, just call me Miss Cleo!

Surely John Rich--Nashville Star judge, Melissa mentor, and the man who'll produce the winner's album--must be pleased with these results. He certainly seemed in good spirits in this preshow interview, taped just moments before the finale began; not only was he dressed to the nines for this special occasion, but he freely admitted that he still has a little crush on his protégé:

Later

As of this writing, Tommy Lee is currently on what is probably Motley Crue's 37th reunion tour. But I'm much more excited about Tommy's return to reality television than his return to the Crue.

Tommy is pure TV gold packed into one tight tattooed package, so I've been waiting a good long while now for the rocker with the big, um, ego to return to the small screen. But I was afraid it would never happen, since the recently regrouped Crue once sued his manager for casting him in shows that allegedly made him look (get this) dumb.

Yes, a couple years ago, Tommy's on/off/on bandmates filed suit against manager Carl Scrubner for $20 million, claiming that Tommy Lee Goes To College and Rock Star: Supernova had "inane overtones" (um, don't ALL reality shows??) and made Tommy look "incoherent, lazy, and incompetent."

Oh yeah, like that's sooooo hard to do.

Well, personally, I've missed seeing this lovable old boob on the boob tube. Ever since the hatchet fell on the Hatchet Man's ill-fated

Tonight's elimination episode was full of the most fun kind of filler: six finale-worthy solos (someone please tell me where I can get one of Twitch's "T" tees, because he really needs to launch his own T-shirt line already); a so-adorable-it-almost-hurt-to-watch breakdance routine to "Planet Rock" by a kid who put the "boy" in b-boy (a 6-year-old who'll probably be in the finale of SYTYCD season 16); and super-space-age performance by peroxide-blonde fembot Lady GaGa.

I was especially going gaga for Lady GaGa. That chick looked she was an alien from Planet Rock! She was a very kinky girl, the kind you don't take home to Mother, a superfreak, and she was superfreak-ing ouuuut. The albino Edgar Winter wig, the Thriller-era Jacko jacket, the hiked-up Flashdance leotard, the illuminated TimeLife-operator headset mic that made her look like she was gargling a mouthful of fireflies....daaaaannnng. I loved everything about her. Her performance of "Just Dance" was the weirdest thing I've