Blogcritics Author: Amrita Rajan

Britney Bombs at VMA and It's All Sarah Silverman's Fault

Amrita Rajan — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:33:40 EDT

Nobody knows what to do with Britney now she�s all grown up and not virgin-slutty anymore...
Well, MTV, it was a long, hard struggle but you finally did it - you have plumbed the depths of pop culture and won the title of Supreme Trainwreck Transmitter. I don’t know who on earth can top the disaster that was Britney Spears at the VMA this weekend but I’m sure someone out there is already gnashing their teeth in envy and trying...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Grey's Anatomy Fires Isaiah Washington

Amrita Rajan — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:35:30 EDT

The end when it came was as sudden as it was anticlimactic. One month after the season finale and five months after Isaiah Washington famously lost his cool on the sets of the hit show Grey's Anatomy, ABC finally confirmed that Dr. Preston Burke is indeed history. To backtrack a little, Washington landed the part of an arrogantly brilliant cardiac surgeon on Anatomy after a pretty successful Hollywood career playing supporting characters in A-list movies with stars such as Harrison Ford and George Clooney, amongst others. Burke was a role he welcomed, coming as it did when he was sick, as he once confided, of playing thugs. But it came with its own set of problems, starting with the cast.Creator Shonda Rhimes, who says she writes and casts characters without following the standard Hollywood practice of first creating a racial profile for them, auditioned two men for the role of the de facto main lead, neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd. One was Washington, the other was Patrick Dempsey. Whoever landed the role, nicknamed McDreamy, would play opposite the nominal lead character in what was to be an ensemble effort, Meredith Grey. Grey was to be played by Ellen Pompeo. The role went to Dempsey, at the time an '80s has-been who'd found fairly steady work in bit roles over the last 20 years. Washington, on the other hand, was cast as the equally yummy but missing-the-Mc-stamp of approval Dr. Burke. The first inkling of any sort of discontent filtered out when Washington openly attributed the casting of McDreamy to the color of his skin. He said it quite clearly on ABC's Nightline when the show was interviewed in the first flush of its success about its multicultural cast and creative team, and repeated it to Oprah Winfrey. For what it's worth, I think he might have a point. While interracial relationships have become fairly prevalent in America, many people still look at it askance. It is not inconceivable that ABC was particularly hesitant to show the most problematical, as Washington put it, of them all - the white woman-black man relationship. Neither Rhimes nor Pompeo, however, have ever addressed the issue directly, both maintaining that Dempsey was well cast. In fact, Rhimes often delves into her fangirl side when asked about Dempsey. And then came other news of on set troubles. With an ensemble cast that grew and expanded by leaps and bounds, screen time was always going to be an issue. Rumors abounded that Washington and Dempsey in particular had issues of this sort. Nobody was admitting anything however. And then came news that Washington, who bills himself as a perfectionist, was irked by TR Knight's (he plays everybody's favorite Bambi George O'Malley on the show) tardiness and had called/referred to him as a "faggot" prompting an on set fight with Dempsey. Once again, everything and everybody locked down. Things dragged on for a couple of days and then Knight gave an interview to People that confirmed his sexuality as a gay man. Everyone wanted to know if his hand was forced by the Washington rumors but he wasn't talking any more than the rest of them. Enter Ted Casablanca of The Awful Truth, a gossip columnist who was amongst the first to report on the Washington-Dempsey-Knight fiasco. At the Golden Globes last year, where GA was one of the big winners, Casablanca asked Rhimes in front of the assembled (and visibly uncomfortable) cast whether the rumors were true and all the above had indeed occurred. Before she could collect her wits, Washington leaned across, grabbed her mike and said, “I did not call TR a faggot!” Pandemonium! He said it again! Okay, it was in the third person but he said it a-g-a-i-n!Co-star Katherine Heigl (a.k.a. Izzie Stevens), who stars in this summer’s hit Knocked Up, came out in defense of Knight and essentially told Washington to shut it. Knight himself went on Ellen Degeneres’ show and laid it all on the line, including the information that Washington had indeed used the slur on set. Rhimes and ABC had very little to say. Washington went on to explain himself and his explanations made everything sound about a hundred times worse. Coming as it did in the wake of the whole Mel Gibson on an anti-Semitic, misogynistic rant and the Michael Richards racist spiel, Washington made it a trifecta of Hollywood people who apparently had no idea that Jews, women, gays, and African Americans all play significant roles in their line of work, from producers to viewers. [There was also Paris Hilton's home video in which she drops the N-word in addition to billing herself as a coke whore but I'm talking about people who have an actual talent so let's move on.] The whole thing even made it into the political arena when that troll-to-end-all-trolls Ann Coulter chose to make a “faggot” fueled dig at Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. That, of course, was after Washington saw the error of his ways and decided to go to rehab to get over his homophobia. Only in Hollywood, folks. Only in Hollywood would that sentence even make sense. Anyway, so he went to rehab, held talks with gay rights groups and even filmed a PSA about how sticks and stones may break your bones but words can still hurt you or something along those lines. Rhimes and ABC remained tight-lipped even if the love of my life, Chandra Wilson a.k.a. The Nazi, chose to shout out to “that other one in rehab” when she won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards later that season.With the season ending on a low note for every single character on the show, the question was still in the air as to whether Washington would continue to be a part of Grey's Anatomy. Well, now we know. On the one hand, this is a crushing blow for fans of GA. Dr. Burke was an integral and riveting part of the show. His relationship with Christina Yang (the oh-so-excellent Sandra Oh), his neuroses as a doctor and human being, his closest and multi-faceted relationships at the hospital – be it with McDreamy, George or Izzie (the irony!) – were all a significant part of the GA dynamic. Even when I hated how his control freak, sanctimonious ass was behaving with Christina, I was a Burketina shipper. Secondly, Washington is a wonderful actor. There wasn't a nuance he didn't hit, a note that he played false. To watch Oh and Washington in action as a couple negotiating crises or as student and teacher, was to be enthralled. Dempsey might have been McDreamy but Washington wasn’t exactly lacking in the fan department. But then he also says things like this: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” If that sounds familiar or catchy, it’s because it’s ‘inspired’ by Network, an iconic satire about a venal television network that uses an anchorman’s on-air breakdown to fuel ratings. And here’s what his publicist had to say: “If they wanted to fire him,” Bragman asks, “why didn’t they fire him when [the incident] happened? Why did they say, ‘Here’s what you need to do if you want to come back… ‘ and then, when he did everything that was asked of him, he still gets fired. Why do you treat somebody like that?” “If you made a mistake, you acknowledged the mistake, you went into counseling, you met with the groups, you did the PSA, you did everything that was asked of you, and then they still kick you in the gut? How would you feel?” How can a man who works in an industry built around image be so clueless? How does he manage to land the one PR agent who basically all but comes out in the open and says his client has absolutely zero sincerity and it’s unfair that he got canned even after he made all the right noises? It’s going to be an enduring mystery to me. If you look at it one way, GA is the result of various race, gender, and sexual rights campaigns to achieve equality. It's a show created by a black woman, featuring black, white, Hispanic, and Asian characters playing highly successful professionals who have interracial and same sex relationships. But if you look at it another way, it shows you that you can't rid yourself of the baggage of those same struggles by simply averting your head.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

Stephen Colbert is Fan-tastic

Amrita Rajan — Sat, 19 May 2007 15:15:39 EDT

"We cannot elect men to office," said Jane Fonda, cozily ensconced on the lap of a disconcerted Stephen Colbert, "that are afraid of premature evacuation."On May 10, Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, got an early birthday present when the object of his fantasy, Fonda, decided to turn her interview with him into a make-out session. "You are so cute, man!" she said to him, her face bare centimeters away from his pink one. "And I'm not kidding - you have the best lips. Why do you think I didn't just kiss you just once the first time I came to your show? I came back for more.""Yes, we had a bit of a freaky three-way with Gloria Steinem, which is something, I think, very few people have been able to say," he responded to shouts of laughter from the constantly giggling audience (if you're like me and can't stand the Comedy Central video player, The Raw Story has full video). Who knew Fonda was a member of the so-called Colbert Nation? But it was only to be expected, I suppose. Colbert's come a long way from October, 2005, when plenty of people, me included, wondered how far The Colbert Report, the new show from The Daily Show stable would go. Colbert was leaving behind the hottest thing in fake news and the idea of a half-hour caricature show didn't seem all that thrilling, even if it was our favorite correspondent who was about to do it. It was one thing to watch Colbert needle self-important pundits like Bill O'Reilly in short segments on TDS, it was quite another to hand over an entire half-hour to a pompous megalomaniac (the character, not the real Colbert).That stuff gets old pretty fast even when it's for real - how much comedy could Colbert wring from it? Well, let's see: after one year and seven months on air, The Report and its bespectacled anchor has attracted attention on a scale guaranteed to make more "legitimate" news shows gnash their teeth in envy. His guests include politicians and pundits from opposite sides of the liberal/conservative divide, movie stars, diplomats, artists and writers, academicians, musicians - it's an eclectic mix. He's also the only TV host I ever saw who actively uses the Internet, especially Youtube, to connect with his fans. Craig Ferguson on CBS may have his emails and "The Google" at his fingertips, but Colbert has his green screen challenges: even George Lucas couldn't resist the pull of the Star Trek challenge. He also contributed the words "truthiness" and "wikiality" to the modern lexicon; inspired a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor called Stephen Colbert's Americone Dreams; has two namesakes in separate protected species - a baby bald eagle named Stephen Jr. and a leatherback turtle called Stephanie Colburtle. Even alternate reality and other countries aren't proof against him - Captain America bequeathed his shield to Colbert upon his death as the only worthy successor to his mantle and the city of Oshawa, Ontario, now celebrates Stephen Colbert Day. He nearly added a bridge in Hungary to his achievements but gave it up after the Hungarian Ambassador told him he'd have to die first. It's an astonishing list of achievements for a fictional character.In fact, in all this time, he has only suffered two significant "losses": once to Barry Manilow ("Kneel before your God, Babylon!" thundered a crushed, in-character Colbert to the Hollywood that had deprived him of his rightful prize) at the Emmys for Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program; and then to South Korean pop sensation Rain in the online poll conducted by Time for the top spot in their annual list of the 100 most influential people. Manilow made up for his involuntary error by signing a peace treaty when he appeared on the show later on. The terms were simple - joint custody. As for Rain - Colbert chose to sing a song in Korean to show the world that he can be Korean and cool too. Much of the frenzy surrounding Colbert is the effect of 2006, when he shook off the "TDS spin-off" tag and jumped into the national consciousness in spectacular fashion by staying in character for the Annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Overnight, he turned into a cultural hero - for the left if not for the right. No amount of breathless anticipation and endless dissection in the mainstream press - be it The New York Times or The New Yorker - could do what that one night's recycled material was able to do. In hindsight, everybody who dismissed his performance that evening as "unfunny" or "mean" agreed that he was a sign of things to come. The backlash had begun, the tide had turned, the buck was slowing to a stop - think of a cliché and it was probably written in foot-high letters somewhere, especially after the 2006 elections. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Certainly, Colbert is more things to all people than I can think of. Personally, having watched him inhabit the character of Stephen Colbert, Idiot with a TV Show, for all these years, I suspect that The Report is less a symbol of our times, and more a result. His effectiveness lies in an utter lack of preachiness at a time when everybody wants to tell us things. Advertisements, movie stars, priests, talking heads on TV - they just won't shut up. Colbert subverts that process by taking it to an extreme level. His pundit is a character into whom he has put a lot of work, and it's fairly clear from his rare interviews that he has learned the trick of concentrating on the job at hand rather than worrying about its eventual result. It's a hard thing for anyone to do, and much harder for someone on TV, whose very job depends on his popularity, to pull off. So far, Stephen Colbert's bearing up about a hundred times better than I could've hoped for. Happy belated birthday, Stephen! It's been a good year. Here's to many more.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

Missing: 2.5 Million TV Viewers

Amrita Rajan — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:13:58 EDT

Conan O’Brien, host of the acclaimed Late Night with Conan O'Brien with shows like The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live on his resume, is a man who knows a thing or two about television. A year or so ago, in an interview with Charlie Rose, he said that he felt we were now living in TV’s Golden Age. The writing was better than it had ever been, the production values were excellent and the acting superb (special mention: Hugh Laurie as Dr. House). And yet, recent estimates suggest that TV viewership in America is down by more than 2.5 million this year compared to last. What happened?Is it a lifestyle change? Is it the effect of TiVo? Is the brilliant writing too brilliant (the old “The viewer is an idiot and this here edjikated stuff ain’t gonna work” argument)? Are concerned parents restricting their kids’ access to TV (I shake my fist at thee, Janet Jackson!)? Is American Idol the last big hurrah before the Apocalypse? Are people so befuddled by the springing forward of Spring Forward that they’re all standing outside their homes in the unexpectedly early extra hour of daylight like bears outside their caves in spring?These are all questions that have been asked and obsessed over, especially as this news comes slap bang in the middle of sweeps’ month – kicking networks right where it hurts the most -- their bank account.But as a person who spends a lot of time on the Internet, I’m surprised at the tiny number of people who’re looking at the effect of the Internet on these numbers. After all, an increasing number of people now choose to view the shows they want online instead of living their lives in thrall to the networks' time schedule.The Internet has been striking terror into the hearts of execs everywhere. While people in other industries have had to deal with things like leaked emails, tell-all blogs, and hacking, the entertainment business – from books to movies to music to TV – has had an entirely different problem on its hands.And that big problem is piracy.Increasing bandwidth and faster connections make it devastatingly simple to download music, photos, documents, and movies from the Internet. Technically, this is stealing; you’re accessing the creative work of other people without actually paying for it, unless you live in Canada where copyright isn't breached till you make money off it. But the whole thing feels a lot more gray. For instance, if I download a movie then I’m obviously not paying to watch it. But I do not profit from it either – I’m under no illusion that I own the movie or that I’m entitled to use any of it for commercial purposes, and while the average person could probably learn the basics of ripping/uploading media files in half an hour or less, most people will remain end-users.The law, of course, doesn’t work on feelings. So technically speaking, if I did download that movie for my own use, even if I deleted it after viewing, I’m performing an illegal activity. There are two ways of combating this problem:One, you can follow the lead of the music industry and punish the end user. This is a singularly stupid option. It’s bad PR, even if you do have the law on your side, and big corporations in today’s world don’t need bad PR. I don’t care if you believe all the anti-business folks in the world should be dropped off a cliff with a rock tied to their feet, bad PR is bad PR. There’s also the fact that punishing the end user doesn’t stop the problem: the guy who put that music up in the first place is still going to do it.End result? You’ve got a whole bunch of people mad at you (especially if it's a campus initiative and some college kid takes home a bill in the thousands for something that "everybody is doing") and nothing’s been solved. The music industry? Slowly catching on as they fix their beady eyes on those who they consider egregious offenders, like the movie industry is targeting people like aXXo.The second option is what a number of TV networks have been trying out: the join ‘em if you can’t beat ‘em method. This idea has possibilities but the networks need to start hiring people clued in to the online scene if they want it to work.First of all, they need to understand that the days of traditional TV are winding down. I’m sorry, you guys, but we just aren’t the captive audience we used to be in your Grandpa’s time. That little machine in our living room isn't half the novelty it used to be, no matter what space age material it's made of. That said, while some people are deliberately getting off the television bandwagon and prefer to spend their times with bigger and better computers, the majority of people still spend time on their couch with their big screen providing background noise.Maybe that too will change in time but it’s still a few years away from becoming commonplace. In the meantime TV needs to stop hemming and hawing over whether putting their shows online would “cannibalize” their audience. They still have a chance to get a corner of this market because unlike movies or music, TV piracy is just on the rise.And if TV wants to seriously compete with BitTorrent sites that offer free downloads and Youtube then it has to look beyond live streaming and iTunes.Networks love live streaming because the average user can’t save a copy of the file. It’s a way to have your cake and eat it too – something TV is very used to. But it also requires an Internet connection that can handle the speed, on (horrendously designed) websites usually geared for Internet Explorer and all too often comes bundled with software that seeks to ascertain that you’re not pirating stuff.Personally, that last is the biggest deal breaker for me. While I’m not fond of websites that have a preference for IE over all other browsers and I hate the lack of thought that goes into sites that forget that not everybody is on a superfast connection, the software part just skeeves me out. I don’t care how safe and specific that thing is, I’m not about to voluntarily download something that spies on my machine.Not when I can go to any old torrent site, using my preferred browser, and download an AVI file that I can keep on my machine for as long as I want without some grubby spyware (legal or not legal) crawling around its innards.As far as iTunes goes, it’s a good thought, but people will always pause to think twice at the idea of having to pay for something that they currently get for free, however much they wish to toe the legal line. Plus one of the main advantages of going online is that you get to create markets where none existed. And not everybody in them might be on the iTunes bandwagon or have access to an acceptable mode of payment like international credit cards.Craig Ferguson, for example, has just begun finding his feet in America much less around the world – and yet, thanks to Youtube, he has fans in countries that have never heard the name "CBS".A site like Joost is a step in the right direction, even if it has an intense Google complex. The consumer really is king. Ad supported downloadable free vids are the way to go, all around. Remember that song, “Video Killed the Radio Star?” If TV doesn’t want to write a corollary to that, then it better see where the audience is headed instead of trying to herd us in like sheep. These here cattle bite.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

Paris Hilton: 45 Nights in Jail

Amrita Rajan — Sun, 6 May 2007 18:30:20 EDT

So Paris Hilton's going to jail. Well, she always was a trendsetter. Given that that trashy crowd she runs around with (Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Ritchie and assorted wanna-bes with MySpace feuds I can't be bothered to remember right now) is anyway in the news half the time for getting wasted in several ways, I bet Paris is about to get some company real soon. Nicole Ritchie is already under the scanner and Lindsay Lohan is apparently headed to Vegas for her 21st birthday (such a shy, retiring little flower that one, can't think of anyone else who really deserves to live it up a little).What's really eerie about this whole business is how it's barely news. I mean, Alec Baldwin yelled at his kid and the world exploded. Paris Hilton got sent to jail and for all the reaction you can find, everybody was more or less expecting it. It's like she's some kind of mass experiment - back when she began, everybody was waiting to see how far she could climb without actually, you know, doing anything; and now everybody is waiting to see how far she can fall without half trying. Back in the 1980s, Madonna reportedly asked Rosanna Arquette, "Wouldn't you give anything to be me for just a minute?" I look at Paris and I bet that's where she thought she was headed when she set out to become famous. And for one brief moment in time, I suppose she succeeded. The Simple Life was a big hit, primarily because it lived down to everybody's expectations and portrayed her and on-again/off-again best pal Ritchie in the worst light possible. She had a brainless catchphrase that she wanted to get copyrighted ("It's hot!") and she was setting all kinds of disgusting fashion trends like carting around tiny little dogs in expensive handbags. Most of what made her famous was pretty incredible - incredibly stupid - but there was very obviously a niche out there that she could fill. Little girls really did want to grow up to be Paris Hilton.I look at those years as the lost years. Had it been me I would have had such fun! Fuck getting drunk and screwing shipping heirs - I would have tried to see just how far people would go to copy me. What if I got myself a pet monkey? Would other people do it? A tiny little bushbaby, perhaps. PETA would have gone up in flames! The Olsens have proved that trying to be extra fug doesn't win you converts but that's because they took it too far. Look at those hideous little Ugg boots - they were a rash on the bum of humanity for a while and they accomplished that by concentrating on one body part. Yes, I would have had so much fun. However, One Night in Paris changed all that. Before, people thought she just dressed like a skank; now she actually was one. It wasn't just the sex tape, it was all the tawdry little details that kept trickling out after that. Paris somehow went on and continued on her way. She was a living testament to the maxim that all publicity is good publicity. But the auctioned contents of her locker revealed a young woman dealing with low self-esteem, medical problems, personal tragedies carefully hidden from public view (no mean feat given the self-inflicted media glare around her), and cheap sex. I've never been a Paris Hilton fan but I'm not an innately vicious person, alright? I kind of felt bad for her. Where were the parents, the friends, the teachers from school who nagged her into lengthening her skirt? Her sister doesn't seem half as fucked up - didn't she ever sit Paris down and tell her to stop? If that was my sister walking around with her vajayjay on full view, I'd have kidnapped her and locked her up until she saw things my way. What's a little illegal detention between loving siblings? And it's not like I would've used chains or anything. A dungeon would do nicely. They can afford to rent one if they don't own one.I digress. The point is, sooner or later Paris was headed this way. Rehab, prison, hospital, court - these are places where I could always picture Paris. And now that she's been in three of them (and may well go there again) she'll go to rehab sooner or later. Probably already has been. It's just natural progression. I can only hope that somewhere in this circuit she learns enough to keep out of the morgue unlike some other "Great Blondes". I know! I know! She doesn't really deserve the moniker but considering she even got mentioned in the same breath as Edie Sedgwick, I'll let her scrape in.From the evidence on hand, that doesn't sound very likely because somebody ripped out words like "responsibility" from the Hilton dictionary. The blame game is on in full force: she apparently blames her PR person for the, um, mix-up? Yeah, mix-up that's sent her to jail. Apparently the guy told her she could drive because... she doesn't actually read what she signs? Is she kidding? She is an heiress, right? Because the first thing anybody, especially in a business family, learns is to always, always, fucking always read what you sign. Hell, even my dad told me that! Personally, I would have asked my lawyer about things like, "What was that legal document the judge asked me to sign?" but then that's just me and my intense desire to stay out of jail. The Hilton lawyer, however, was probably hassling people like Michael K at Dlisted for running the cartoon below. Visit Gallery of the Absurd for the full picture.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

American Idol 6: Sent-jaya-home Malakar

Amrita Rajan — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:15:30 EDT

Of all the people made happy by Sanjaya Malakar’s exit from American Idol – and yes, I’m looking at you and your big fat grin, Simon Cowell – the happiest is, I think, Sanjaya himself. If he isn’t, then he should be.I’ve said for a while now that the show was sapping whatever talent he had, pushing him to make a bigger spectacle of himself each week because plain singing just wasn’t enough in his case. In the process, he got some of the hardest-earned stage confidence that I’ve ever seen anybody garner and that’s the one positive thing he can take with him from Idol. Once the crushing weight of the show was off his back, he immediately relaxed into a much more confident and less desperate performer – the evidence is right there for you to see in his farewell performance.So now that he no longer threatens the crown itself, everybody can sit back and enjoy his kookiness. No longer will he inspire hunger strikes and boos at ball games. Howard Stern and Vote for the Worst just got their rightful comeuppance. In this bright new day, people might even wave back at him occasionally. He is no longer the Anti-Christ of Idol (makes no sense, I know, but play along please, we’re pretending Idol hysteria has real world implications). I personally started the process a full two weeks ago so I can recommend it for the rest of you haters out there. I was shown the light by Tony Bennett, people, when he said he loved Sanjaya because he was a performer. He must be, I reasoned, because the Sanjaya Freak Show had me transfixed at the pony-hawk. I mean, before that I was just appalled at the fact that he made it when people who could carry a tune like Sabrina Sloan and Stephanie Edwards got kicked off. But the faux-hawk convinced me I was witnessing some sort of greatness – some sort of awesomely bad greatness. I know, I know, the rabid Sanjaya Sweeties (how come there’s no "official" name for Sanjaya lovers? I think his claim is far greater than that of Chris "Fro Patro" Sligh) amongst you will come out with your war cry, “Sanjaya Can Sing!” Look, don’t convince us, convince him. This is the kid who told us two weeks ago that his mission was to “show America [he] can sing”. While it was nice to see that hubris hadn’t gotten the better of him and tipped him headfirst into a boiling vat of delusion (yes, I mean you Antonella!) like the one some of his fans were wallowing in, it also made me feel bad for him. Look, he’s a nice kid. I’ve said that from the beginning and I maintain it till this day. The "Smugjaya" (thanks, Kaonashi!) that emerged to flutter its beastly wings in the past few weeks was entirely the result of a weak defense mechanism. Actually, I think in real life he’d just have taken his constant spankings and gone to his room to soak his pillow with tears. But that puts a damper on everyone’s fun, so I don’t doubt the producers were feeding him lines and propping him up to be as mean as he could (which wasn’t much). It is worth noting that not even at the very bottom of the trough that has been his Idol experience did he exhibit the levels of sullenness shown by Chicken Little. Nor did he try to justify his bad singing a la Chris Timberfake this week ("nasally" is a style of singing? Ri-i-ght). And he didn’t try to smother his defeats under a cloak of fake-cool like the Fro Patro guy. All in all, my pet object of hate this season has been very unsatisfactory. First of all, I couldn’t enjoy hating him because every time I did (which was every time he sang) I felt like I was kicking a puppy. Nor could I properly enjoy the full extent of his bizarreness because as soon as I tried, I felt like I was getting played. I don’t like the sensation of being a puppet on a string and every time I winced at Sanjaya I could feel the producers gloating at having hit the jackpot in a contestant who simultaneously made me laugh, hate, fear, and pity. Laugh because he’s such a dork and nobody ever gets too old to laugh at dorks. Hate because I’m not tone deaf and there were a couple of songs he butchered that I really liked but now will never be able to hear without remembering his (shudder) version. Fear because Idol really would have gone down the toilet (at least for me) if he’d ended up a finalist and I don’t want to give up my yearly fix of crazy beeyotches auditioning to get their miserable dreams shot to smithereens on national television. And pity because the only thing this kid ever did wrong was take a chance on his dreams and look where he ended up.He’s got the starring role in all kinds of conspiracy theories on an international level – in fact, I’m kind of surprised, what with all the egregious shoutouts to Virginia Tech Tuesday night, that nobody’s brought up the theory that he got voted out as part of an immigrant backlash. He has an amazing amount of name recognition and nobody really knows what he can do with it because if he did put out a record, what would it sound like?Would it have an awesome video with him going crazy coupled with terrible singing? The two times he’s sounded decent on this show, he’s pretty much bored me to tears, so would it be a well-sung snoozefest with a hair fixation? If the tweenie market is his target audience and Stevie Wonder is his inspiration then how’re those two facts going to gel? If the older “I’m an underdog/I got laughed at in high school/I got wedgies in college” pity crowd is his soft spot, then will their compassion extend to buying his albums? Is the hair going to follow him every where he goes like the image of Faith followed George Michael and the briefs followed Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg…?Hold on, rewind. Did I just lump Sanjaya with George Michael and Marky Mark? BWAHAHAHA!Never mind. I think I just got an irony headache. Like Ryan said, we won’t soon forget you, Sanjaya, whether you get Sign-jaya or not. Sanjaya Gives us Something to Talk About Sanjaya Goes Home

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

Bookworm Rebellion

Amrita Rajan — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:50:45 EDT

Rebellion is a poor excuse to deny oneself pleasure but that’s the only thing I can come up with when I look at the list of books I ought to have read but haven’t. I should explain that my mother is a lady with definite literary tastes that she has sought to pass on to me for as long as I can remember. Part of her determination, I suspect, stems from the fact that it has been years since my brother so much as looked at a book and, even if he did, he’d read something she’d automatically classify as degenerate. I, on the other hand, read pretty much everything that comes my way, including flyers and restaurant menus. It’s a disease. Ma got her first good shot at me when I was eight and bedridden – I couldn’t so much as make it to the bathroom without help so visits to the bookstore were out of the question. I still scribbled the names of the books I wanted to read (I was then in my Nancy Drew phase) which my mother took without comment and then completely ignored. Instead, she bought me what she thought I should be reading – The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo (both unabridged), six of Shakespeare’s major plays (abridged) and, by way of light relief, The School at the Chalet. I was furious. I was in a mood to begin the Supermysteries starring Nancy and the Hardy Boys. Thanks to the power of the blurb, I was convinced these were going to be the best adventure mysteries ever known to mankind, and here was my mother forcing fuddy-duddy literature down my throat in direct opposition to my stated wishes. I threw a tantrum – and Ma coolly closed the door behind her. After I’d cheered up by imagining the shock and everlasting grief she would suffer when she came back and found me dead of whatever life-threatening disease that stalks ignored children, I defiantly picked up a Nancy Drew I’d read a dozen times already. This was India before the advent of cable television and in any case, my parents to this date don’t believe in spoiling their children with TVs in their bedrooms, so it was read or be bored. I was bored. Giving in to the inevitable, I chose The Count of Monte Cristo (it was lying closest to hand) to prove to myself that my mother knew nothing whatsoever about books. And I fell in love. But ever since then, somewhere in my head I’ve automatically separated all books into Mom-approved vs. Me-approved. It doesn’t matter that they’re mostly the same, some books just scream “Mom-approved”. These, I will read eventually, but only when I have nothing left to read and will usually be borrowed from a library; to be bought only when I end up loving them, which happens about 80 percent of the time.Here’re five awaiting their turn:Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas HardyHow can I resist a book in which the main characters are named Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene? Yet somehow I’ve managed this astonishing feat. Not only does its plot sound right up my alley (although to be honest, there is precious little that isn’t) but it is part of a literary period that I generally like. Not adore, like say, the early 19th century, but certainly like a great deal. In addition, the odd bits and pieces of Hardy that I’ve read over the years seem pretty good to me. Once, I even took it out of the library – and neglected it in favor of a Bronte re-reading orgy. Put Jane Eyre in front of me and I become a zombie that must feed on all things Bronte. Note to self: next time, borrow it along with some Anne Rice, I’d read anything to avoid reading Rice. How Green Was My Valley by Richard LlewellynWelsh misery. No, no, that’s not my opinion of it, that’s the plot. I’ll freely admit that the sad stories aren’t my favorite. Not that I live to only read about cute li’l bunnies on uppers but as I’ve said before, I suspend my disbelief very easily. And the Welsh have a justly deserved reputation for beauty mixed with sadness. You give me beauty mixed with sadness and by the end of the day all you’ll find a huddled husk of a human being under a sodden handkerchief. I mean, I saw the movie and Maureen O’Hara had me in tears. Last week, I read a Cold War thriller and bawled my head off reading about a fictional orphaned little boy who got exactly one paragraph in a novel full of violence and torture. Someday I’m going to give in, read this book and die of dehydration. I just know it. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest HemingwayI tried. I really did. Ma has been after me to read this book for years. She even bought it and put it on my table. This is the woman who regularly tries to make me stop reading and be, as she calls it, “sociable”. That’s how much she loves this book. So I did what every good child does – I cheated. I rented the movie made by John Ford (a director I love) and starring Spencer Tracy (an actor I adore). End result? I fidgeted my way through the first five minutes and then switched it off so I could go solve some Math equations. I tried three separate times but never made it past the first 10 minutes. I figure it must have gotten better as the movie progressed considering the Oscars it won/was nominated for, but I haven’t seen it. Of the book itself, I’ve never gotten past page one. The little I know, I read in critical papers that I scoured for tips with which I could throw my mother off the scent. So I know it’s about some dude named Santiago who ends up with a giant marlin’s skeleton. Oops, did I spoil it for you? Never mind, you’ll survive. The most I can say about this book is that it has generated some of the craziest meta theories I ever read in which that dumb fish is everything from Christianity to God Himself. And the funniest fact I found out was that all the critics who loved it as a shining example of realism when it first came out, changed their minds once Hemingway began to pontificate about its layers of meaning. Ha ha, Hemingway. Couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you? But thanks for proving once and for all that critical opinion is still just one person’s fallible opinion whether your find it in the pages of The New York Times or your neighborhood newsletter. The Tropic of Cancer (and Capricorn) by Henry MillerOkay, I can’t blame this one on my mother. She’d probably rather I never read this one. But it weighs heavily on my mind that I haven’t read a book that George Orwell thought was one of the most significant books to be written in the 20th century. I mean, Henry Miller has always seemed a part of that intensely self-conscious, envelope-pushing crowd that inhabited the middle part of the last century (necessary evil, I guess) but I do know that these two books are ones that I should read. Actually, I think I should read at least one book by all the writers Anais Nin took as lovers but Henry Miller will do for now. Lawrence Durrell, your time will come.Problem is, I get the blahs just thinking about it. This is mainly a reflection of my own prejudice – I’m not a big fan of 20th century literature. I personally feel a significant portion of it is pretentious humbug, written with one eye firmly fixed on being “important”. There! I said it and I mean it. It is entirely possible that Miller is not one of those writers but a little voice in the back of my head remains dubious. Whatever be the case, a mere glimpse of it is enough to give me an instant case of ennui.***So that’s my secret list. I’m not proud of it, but I don’t particularly feel guilty about them either. Not until my mother wants to know what I’m currently reading anyway.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

American Idol 6: Gina Rocks No More

Amrita Rajan — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 17:47:10 EDT

Oh, Gina, Gina, Gina Glocksen, it wasn’t your time to go. It was Haley’s. Or possibly that guy’s, the one who makes me want to hang garlic around my neck. I won’t even mention he whose mission this week was to “show America [he] can sing.” We all know he’s not going anywhere. But your departure made some things perfectly clear about this season of American Idol. For one thing, Tony Bennett and the judges are right: Sanjaya is a performer more than anything else. He might have discovered his niche entirely by accident (or, as I like to maintain, desperation) but an entertainer he definitely is. I just wonder what that says about Blake Lewis, who is also an entertainer more than a singer. And before all the Beatbox Blake Bunnies descend in screaming fury on my poor head, I’d like to say yes, he and Sanjaya don’t deserve to be grouped together (it’s a moot point anyway – how can you possibly group anyone with a person who now has his own personal universe?) but the fact still remains that his best performances rely on his charisma more than actual singing talent. But this is a good season to have a personality because most of the others either simply don’t have one or manage to hide it pretty well. Philferatu’s a patriotic zombie, Haley is a weepy pair of legs, Chris R… exists, I guess, LaKisha of the big voice is afraid of animals, Melinda is adorably/nauseatingly humble, while Jordin is young and makes faces. That leaves (or left, rather) us with Beatbox Blake whose USP is that he actually acts his age, Sanjaya of the Other Realm, and Gina.Gina’s problem was that she had an image to live up to. Bear with me, it’s not as crazy as it sounds. You see, ever since Bo Bice and, more to the point, Chris Daughtry decided to give Idol the rocker stamp of approval, they’ve used it to deflect all kinds of criticism. How can Idol be a cheesy talent show geared towards grandparents and 12-year-olds when ‘genuine artists’ walk its boards? We saw the judges drag their names out of the closet the moment some upstart (deluded) contestant started reaming them about being the show that sold music down the river (read: 'is uninterested in whatever horrendous crap they’re peddling'). Enter Gina, the dental assistant. Pink stripe in her hair, rocker gear, a band back home called Catfight, and a mega crush on Simon Cowell. Could she be more perfect? Well, yeah. For starters, she could have been older than 22 so that she could join the rest of this show in celebrating her rocker cred. Gina couldn’t seem to understand that this show is all about catering to people’s expectations. Of course, they’re usually crap and there is no reason why you should cater to them – unless you’d like to win the competition. People like labels. They like to know what to expect when they see your mug on TV or buy your CD at a Starbucks or pick up your book while waiting in line at the supermarket. Imagine you picked up a CD with a guy dressed in a lot of bling, a sneer, and baggy jeans falling off his hips on the cover; you get into your car, shove it in, and hear Christmas carols. How would you react?The question isn’t whether guys with that kind of an image can sing carols. Of course they can (in fact, it would be kind of awesome to hear some Christmas rap). Silent Night is a holy night for all of us, irrespective of our sartorial tastes. But that’s not what the paying public expects. And thus, as soon as Gina stepped in, everybody wanted her to be the Rocker Chick. Problem was, Gina’s a 22-year-old. It appeared she had ideas of defying expectations and doing her own thing. All of which are noble ambitions except when you consider two things: A) To defy expectations, one needs the kind of talent that will allow one to do so. Gina is definitely talented but part of honing that talent is to realize your strengths as well as your limitations. Not all of us are prodigies and that’s okay as long as we can recognize that fact and play up to it. Chris Daughtry, if you’ll remember, very neatly side-stepped the issue by simply choosing songs that he could adapt to his style.B) This is Idol. It’s a beast that thrives on formula (but don’t tell them that – they don’t like to be reminded of it). By the time the producers are done with you, by God you’re produced and you’ll stay that way if you know what’s good for you! The only way you can escape that fate is to either bow down and embrace it in ways they never expected you to by (I’m sorry but I’m going to say it) “making it your own” a la Taylor Hicks or you can get voted off and do whatever it is that you want to do a la Chris Daughtry. In fact, just the other day Nigel Lythgoe, czar of the Idol empire, was moved to ask a rather philosophical question – “What do you mean by winning?” Hmm, oh I don’t know – like maybe when Miss America gets the shiny sash and glittery tiara? It’s that thing your friend Simon says he loves to do all the time. We figure we’d like some of that, too. But of course, he has a point. As much as Simon might get pale with fury at the suggestion that this show is merely a stepping stone to a brighter future, that’s the entire premise of this show, isn’t it? Competitions that are an end by themselves usually involve winning prizes like a car or an all expense paid trip on the Cruise of Death (well, you know what I mean). They don’t feature an entire career as a prize. And it’d be a pretty sad career if winning a TV show, even the most popular TV show of the time, was the best you could say about it, don’t you think?So Gina of the candy-striped hair went this week with the promise of summer employment and a chance to find out who she is on her own time. In the process she (together with Chris Sligh) taught us all that Simon is living proof of an old Indian saying, “the best relationship with a snake is neither friendship nor enmity”. For that piece of valuable information and the classiest sing out I’ve seen so far this season, I thank you. Good job, Gina. We’ll miss you.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

Book Review: The Last Frontier by Alistair Maclean

Amrita Rajan — Thu, 5 Apr 2007 17:09:59 EDT

The novels of Alistair Maclean are some of the best works of popular fiction written in the last century. They include books that went on to inspire Hollywood classics such as The Guns of Navarone (Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn), Where Eagles Dare (Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood), and Ice Station Zebra (Rock Hudson). One of my personal favorites, however, is The Last Frontier.For a fairly complex novel, The Last Frontier has a straightforward Cold War plot: Michael Reynolds is a British spy sent behind the Iron Curtain to rescue a British ballistics expert, Dr. Harold Jennings. In Budapest, he finds some unlikely allies in the form of three remarkable men – Jansci, once Major General Alexis Illyurin, now a revolutionary leader of great interest to the Soviets; the Count, a master of disguise who has managed to infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded Hungarian secret police, the AVO (later the AVH); and Sandor, a man of extraordinary strength and unswerving loyalty.The plan calls for a simple grab job -- Dr. Jennings is in Budapest being briefed for an upcoming press conference -- but with the Russians on guard, nothing is going to be easy. For one thing there is Jansci’s private life. His wife is lost, snatched by government forces in a routine pogrom when he was not at hand and sent to some concentration camp where he cannot trace her in spite of his best efforts. Adding to this worry is his daughter Julia who refuses to leave him or her mother behind for safer climes.Then there is Jansci himself. Reynolds is introduced as a hard and dangerous man of little moral compunction and willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals no matter what or who gets in his way. Jansci is his almost exact opposite, a sort of Gandhian figure who consciously chooses not to take Reynolds’ path in spite of having every opportunity, not to mention ability.The two men develop a fascination and admiration for each other, but inevitably find themselves clashing on certain ideological and philosophical points. Early on in the novel, there is a long dialogue between these two during which they go back and forth about the nature of fear, Communism, people, the West, and Russians in general. Although circumstances have changed beyond recognition since then, more than a half-century later it is still a thought-provoking piece of writing.Reynolds argues that he can only see one unifying factor, one underlying reason why the world keeps coming back to the brink of an awful precipice with its threat of nuclear annihilation, human misery, and the obstruction of free thought - and that reason is Communism. Jansci disagrees. Communism, he says, “remains only as a myth, an empty lip-service catchword in the name of which the cynical, ruthless realists of the Kremlin find sufficient excuse and justification for whatever barbarities their policies demands.”In his opinion it is fear that threatens the world the most: The fear of the men in power as to what the future will bring, of past mistakes in leadership that might one day come back to haunt them, of the reactions of their own people and, most of all, of the outside world and what the penetration of its ideas might do to them and their culture. He thinks of these as human faults and can understand them. “You like the Russians. Even the Russian is your brother?” Mask it as he tried with politeness, Reynolds could not quite conceal the incredulity in his question. “After what they have done to you and your family?”“A monster, and I stand condemned. Love for your enemies should be confined to where it belongs – between the covers of the Bible – and only the insane would have the courage, or the arrogance or the stupidity, to open the pages and turn the principles into practice. Madmen, only madmen would do it – but without these madmen, our Armageddon will surely come.”Written in the 1950s, it is no wonder that with ideas such as these, The Last Frontier was a miserable commercial failure compared to some of Maclean’s other works. It is only in its ideological heart that this book differs from the rest of its brethren. Other than that it is classic Maclean.Reynolds is suitably beaten up and put through the wringer, emerging as a better man with a bitter smile and Julia on his arm. The supporting cast and villains are by turns ominous (several AVO agents), heartbreaking (I’ll freely admit that the Count’s soliloquy about his only surviving child clogs my throat every time I so much as think about it) and comforting (the silent Sandor is just about the most useful human being I’ve ever read of).The details of torture, murder, casual violence, corruption, and genocide as part of daily life behind the Iron Curtain are chilling. The Last Frontier, also published as The Secret Ways in the United States, is an action-packed emotional wringer of a book that offers a little more to think about than your average paperback. Normally that spells disaster. In this case, I recommend it highly.

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.

American Idol 6: Chris the Controversial Christian

Amrita Rajan — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:52:39 EDT

Chris Sligh has always impressed me as a man with a plan. Walking into the sixth season of American Idol, he and his fellow contestants obviously had to have an idea of how the show works. I don’t doubt that he’s genuinely snarky, but his quip during the auditions (“I’m here to make David Hasselhoff cry”) was pretty much an indicator of Idol things to come: nicely calculated to make an impression on the judges and the viewers at home without offending anybody save The Hoff’s German fans (who can’t vote) and those who are in eternal mourning for the cleavage that was Baywatch (who wouldn’t vote for him anyway). By the time the top 24 were finalized, however, it must have been obvious to him that he hadn’t landed in the two prime Idol spots that gets everybody talking: the best of the best and the worst of the rest. The girls pretty much had a lockdown on the best section while Antonella Barba and Sanjaya Malakar were shoo-ins for the worst (Sanjaya fans, please don’t email me, I know you love him already. Believe me, how I know!). Haley Scarnato would sometimes stray over to the latter group but her problem is a personality vacuum more than anything else; she has it patched up with her wardrobe for now but it won’t last. Blake Lewis gets into the former by default because he’s young, pretty and beatboxes when he isn’t singing; he also knows songs from the 90s and has that elusive thing called personality, which means the rest of the guys are pretty much screwed no matter how much Timberland or Nosferatu they channel. So there are only two other options left to stand out: either bring something “different” to the table or make your way up the controversy rankings. I don’t know if Sligh made a conscious decision to try each of these out but try them he did and failed every time. First up: bringing the “different”. Snarky Sligh was in full force when he had that infamous brush with Simon Cowell involving Il Divo and Teletubbies. I bet he didn’t see the outrage coming. It’s a common mistake: people, especially people who hate Simon, always think that he makes an easy target because, well, he’s so free with the insults himself. But as Sharon Osbourne put it once, Simon is Simon. What he can get away with, only he can, for strange and hazy reasons that really make no sense in the light of day. You need to be extremely sure of your ground before you take him on, on his own turf. In this case, he wasn’t even being all that critical. Had Haley brought out the Il Divo the night he told her he couldn’t remember her name, everybody would have laughed it off. It was a timing issue more than anything else. Sligh wised up enough to make a non-apology (“I love Simon” = “I’m sorry I overreacted” in Sligh speak) but the shine was off the patina. Now that it had been made clear that there was only room for one quotable asshole on Idol, next came establishing an identity. This is the Holy Grail of the Idol experience. In the real world, if you’re somebody like Haley Scarnato (an okay talent with a great body) record execs will invent one for you; on Idol, they’re after the Real Thing or something like that so you have to find one for yourself. Sligh chose “Cool & Chubby” as opposed to Blake’s “Cool & Cocky”. Had it worked, it would have been a great idea. Like Rosie O’Donnell pointed out to Donald Trump during one of their spats, it’s not exactly news to overweight people when you call them ‘fat.’ Those extra pounds don’t render them blind, you know. So Sligh’s pre-emptive strike with “Bringing Chubby Back” was a nice touch. It didn’t work with Simon the night of the fight (he said Sligh qualified as a teletubby) but it still worked for me because of the dig at Justin Timberlake, a man who ought to be dug out of sight in my opinion. Of course, it made you wonder what Ruben Studdard did in that case, considering he and his bulk actually won Idol but on the whole it was a nice touch. Being chubby alone wasn’t going to deliver the competition however, especially considering fears such as the one expressed by this writer: Although American Idol does not judge the contestants on their weight and it is possible for contestants who have been overweight on the show like Ruben Studdard (who has since lost a lot of weight on a vegetarian diet) and Underwood (who has definitely lost weight for whatever reason since she won--I thought she looked better before her weight loss), it still leaves the question about the long-term implications of whether being fat will hurt Chris Sligh when all is said and done.So then there was a matter of cool. Maybe it was peer pressure or herd mentality or they’re two peas in different sized pods or perhaps he was always inclined that way (Blake Lewis is his American Idol, he says), but “cool” in this season of Idol is what Blake does. Leslie Hunt (odd, sweet Leslie Hunt -- can you have forgotten her already?) broke out the beatboxing in an ill-advised stunt and even Ryan Seacrest was moved to, um, dance. So Sligh did the “current” thing that Blake does so well. In the process, he ran out of breath, couldn’t find a beat and looked really pissed about being on stage. Finally, he told Randy this week that he felt as though he was “taking a Master's class”. I guess he flunked. Too bad, because had he survived this week he could have become the show’s controversial Christian which might have given him the visibility that he needed. Yes, folks, that’s the big reveal – Sligh is a Christian. Did that just blow your mind? This writer suspects it did. Who knew that Chris Sligh being publicly exposed as a Christian would lead to his demise? Now, considering today's political climate in America, that is what you call irony! But how else do you explain his meteoric fall from guy-favorite to total shlub in only two short weeks? Surely he wasn't bested by a beat boxer, was he?Well, that certainly explains my sudden desire to book Yankee Stadium and rent a few starving lions every time I see Sligh. Crucifixion’s too good for him, I say!I wish I could say I’m surprised by what some people will choose to believe but after getting a look at what the Sanjaya puzzle has done to the blogosphere, nothing surprises me anymore. I bet someone somewhere doesn’t think Paula Abdul was kidding when she said her strange behavior is the result of an alien abduction. Not that the hated man of faith angle is a bad one. Godless Hollywood Takes Revenge on the Faithful (for whatever it is that the faithful have done to it) has a certain ring to it. Too bad the people who seem to have a problem with Sligh are the ones on “his” side such as: Jonathan Pait, a spokesman for fundamentalist Bob Jones University where Sligh attended for several years, said: "We really are somewhat disappointed with the direction he has gone musically."I guess Blake is Satan in disguise then, beatboxing poor ol’ Chris onto the ways of temptation and deep into the savage realms of music as represented by bands such as 311 and Jamiroquai. To top things off, Sligh isn’t even the only practicing Christian on the show. Frontrunner and everybody’s sweetheart Melinda Doolittle is just as much of a Christian and nothing seems to be rocking her boat: Doolittle, before joining American Idol, was a backup singer for several gospel music acts, according to a report by The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville March 21. Some have compared her to last season's Mandisa Hundley, who portrayed a strong faith on the show and is now recording a Christian album.Each American Idol contestant answered a list of questions for their biography page on the show's website, and Doolittle said one of her goals is to "represent Christ well," and she prays before she performs. She cited her Bible as her lucky charm, and if she wins the contest, she plans to thank Jesus and her mother. Entertainment Weekly magazine has picked her as their favorite to win.Other contestants with ties to the church include Jordin Sparks, who sang on two Michael W. Smith Christmas tours, according to The Tennessean, and Phil Stacey, who leads worship at First Coast Christian Center in Jacksonville, Fla., and is a graduate of the Church of God-affiliated Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.The Fro Patro would have better luck pointing fingers at FOX for apparently conspiring against him for giving a shout-out to its arch nemesis Vote for the Worst by yelling, “Hi, Dave!” at the conclusion of last week’s performance. If that’s indeed the case, then I bet Curly’s really sad now because it’s pretty clear from Dave’s interview that not only does Dave not care for his singing talent but he might even be responsible for boosting Sanjaya at Sligh’s cost (although that could just be typical VFTW talk). You can’t sing with the hares and vote with the hounds, Sligh. You can either be too cool for this show, or be on the show. Make up your mind. Oh, that’s right, America made it up for you. But don’t cry for Sligh, America. Not only does he get to tour with Sanjaya this summer (the lucky, lucky man!), but his band is waiting for him to get back and capitalize on the success of their first album, now making the rounds of the internet, boosted by Sligh’s AI appearance. Plus, his departure made a significant difference to the bank balance of quite a few fans. Maybe they’ll spend it on his album. Such is the stuff silver linings are made of. Chris with Band Chris' Last Performance

Amrita Rajan keeps an eye on the world from NYC.