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Published on Friday, Apr 25, 2008
Carly's Cool. In a conference call on Thursday, Carly Smithson talked about seeing her husband again, making her own CD and getting away from theme nights. In other words, she is just fine with her elimination from American Idol on Wednesday.
To be sure, she should not have been ousted before the dreadful Jason Castro or Brooke White, who for the second time this season had to restart her song. (I have a detailed rant about this in the HeldenFiles Online, via http://www.ohio.com.) Still, she said, ''anything after top 10 is a bonus.''
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High Expectations. Smithson said the show set the standard high for her early on, and it was ''bad press'' when it came out that she had had a major-label deal and some national publicity before going on Idol. But she saw the show not as a second chance, but as a first. Her previous CD ''went into stores, but it never got promoted.'' And she walked away from the music business for a couple of years after that experience.
Still, the spotlight may have hurt her performances in the early going this season. Nor was she quite sure what to do with the stardom accompanying Idol. It wasn't until she met Mariah Carey — ''she was so cool and so normal'' — that she began to relax.
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Popularity Contest. But by then, it may have been too late to build a strong fan base. She agreed that popularity is part of the reason that singers get votes, and fan bases are formed early. In addition, she said the men seem to have an advantage this year.
''Women vote for this show, and they vote for the boys'' this year, she said. ''I definitely feel the girls had more of a struggle to get the popularity vote.''
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Any Picks? Smithson would not pick a winner or a favorite among the remaining singers. She said her favorite — Amanda Overmyer — was long gone. Asked specifically about the widespread expectation that the final will be David Cook against David Archuleta, she said, ''It's kind of anyone's game. . . . Castro could look into the camera and bat his eyelashes and go into his amazing falsetto,'' she said, and so defy the oddsmakers.
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Carly Tidbits. Her dress on Tuesday's show came from the CUSP store in Century City, Calif. . . . She does not have a tattoo of Amy Winehouse, although many people — including ''amazing'' mentor Andrew Lloyd Webber — have thought so. It's an unfinished tattoo of a geisha. . . . If she had lasted until next week, when the theme is Neil Diamond songs, she planned to do Sweet Caroline, but ''balladish,'' with cello and piano. . . . She thought the theme week of Mariah Carey songs was much more difficult than Webber's catalog, because with Webber ''there's something for everyone.''
And now on to other topics.
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High Office. Ed Esposito, vice president of information media for Rubber City Radio Group (radio stations WAKR/WONE/WQMX/AkronNewsNow.com), has become chairman of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. He has been with the Rubber City group for 10 years.
The association calls itself ''the world's largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism.'' It represents local and network news professionals in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries.
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Obama Meets Wallace. Presidential candidate Barack Obama will finally sit down for an interview with Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace for telecast this weekend.
The TV show has had an ongoing, on-air ''Obama Watch'' counting the time from Obama's acceptance of an invitation to appear on the show — until he actually sat down for the interview. By Fox's estimation, more than 765 days have passed.
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Lad Mag Salutes Fox. Not the network. Transformers co-star Megan Fox is ''the sexiest woman in the world for 2008,'' says the online companion to men's magazine FHM. Derived from an FHM poll, the list was previously topped by Jessica Alba, who dropped to third, behind Fox and Jessica Biel.
Completing the top 10 were, in descending order, Elisha Cuthbert, Scarlett Johansson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Hilary Duff, Tricia Helfer, Blake Lively and Kate Beckinsale.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. You can find more columns, questions and answers at http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/heldenfels.
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