Why is it that when anyone asks "Can I be honest with you?" no one ever has the sense to say, "Well, actually, no. This isn't a good time for that in front of sixty million viewers."
Instead, we got Paula Abdul telling Ashley, the 17-year-old skating waitress (did she ever get a last name?), that makeup that comes with a free trowel might not be such a good idea. Ashley, who may have recently seen Memoirs of a Geisha, did get off a very witty (though possibly accidentally so) riposte. "I understand, you're just giving motherly advice here."
Still, I'm sorry America didn't get to hear the rest of Paula's advice which would have been, "Look at me, cosmetic surgery is far more effective than large quantities of makeup."
In addition, there was the terrific theater of Eboni, her pal, appearing to have real talent. Have you ever noticed that whenever there's a pair or group of auditioners that invariably the better or best singer just happens to be the one who goes last?
In any case, I believe reality TV works best when the big moments unfold rather than get staged by the producers. An even better case in point was Bruce Banner and his cousin the Hulk, aka Akron Watson and William Green. It was Green who chose to fake "losing it" on his exit from his audience with the judges to punk his cousin and it was a genuinely funny and yet touching moment.
Yes, there were all these layers in the sequence. You could see a tenderness in the relationship. Green was there not only to support his cousin who actually could sing some, but rather cannily helped give him a little more personality or at least made him more memorable by contrast. It's too bad that the ultimate reality caught up with Akron Watson and the producers decided to revoke his golden ticket for some reason likely tied to a conviction of some kind. In this instance, it felt like it was the participants doing the staging, not the producers, and the result was much more compelling.
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