Jacob Lusk
Jacob Lusk made it all the way to American Idol's fifth place, but it was no easy road. The 23-year-old spa concierge from Compton, California, struggled to find his footing doing live performances on the Idol stage after wowing the judges early on with his off-the-charts Hollywood Week audition, "God Bless The Child."
Lusk knew he was in serious trouble Wednesday night after making song choices — like "No Air" — that were outside his R&B comfort zone. But he's not blaming anyone, including record mogul Jimmy Iovine, for pushing him in different directions. "I take full responsibility for my choices," says Lusk. "I messed up. Nobody else did"...
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Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga will mentor the remaining four American Idol finalists next week, Fox announced Friday.
Gaga will join Jimmy Iovine in the studio to help Lauren Alaina, James Durbin, Scotty McCreery and Haley Reinhart prepare to sing songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Reinhart performed the singer's unreleased track "You and Me" on Wednesday.
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Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv
Fringe (Friday, 9/8c, Fox)
With time-tripping future shock and head-spinning "what world is this" chaos, the literally fantastic third season of Fringe wraps with what should be a spectacular finish. Having put himself in the doomsday device and glimpsing an apocalyptic future, Peter is about to realize his destiny as the warring parallel worlds continue to collide. As in past seasons, the grand finale promises to be a true game-changer, and how happy are we that Fox looked beyond the dismal Friday ratings — what did they expect — to ensure the show a fourth season to keep blowing our minds.
Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour (Saturday, 9/8c, HBO)
Who else but HBO could truly do justice to an unexpurgated concert special showcasing the Madonna of the new millennium: the protean and prolific and perversely unpredictable Lady Gaga. Culled from two February performances at Madison Square Garden, the special features...
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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
This is delightful history." So declared TV's reigning queen of news, Barbara Walters, as the newly wed Catherine, now Duchess of Cambridge, emerged from Westminster Abbey alongside her prince Friday morning to pealing bells, cheering crowds and a gawking worldwide TV audience estimated in the billions, soaking up a jubilant moment in the often rocky life of the British royals. In shared media moments like this, we are all uncommonly privileged commoners, granted a front-row seat to rubberneck at will at a lavish ceremony, festooned with wacky hats, that seemingly went off without a hitch. Watching in high-def (a first for a British royal wedding), I was struck by both the intimacy and grandeur of what the cameras captured: best man Harry's sly look backward at Kate's long approach down the aisle while his brother faced forward — he apparently whispered, "Wait till you see her" — the sideways amused glances between Kate and William revealing that they were keeping it real amidst the pomp, the prince's struggle to place the ring on her finger, all set against sweeping long shots, including staggeringly beautiful aerials of the entire abbey, like something out of a classic movie romance....
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Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus will make a surprise appearance on American Idol Wednesday, E! News reports.
The 18-year-old pop star will help...
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Jacob Lusk
American Idol's gospel-belting Jacob Lusk escaped the hot seat Thursday night. But he's still in a very uncomfortable position: Lusk is caught between judge Randy Jackson, who continually tells him to "put the pedal down," and record mogul Jimmy Iovine, who wants Lusk to tone down his sometimes over-the-top singing style...
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Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson
Ok, so we've already talked about how much we adore the new American Idol judging panel. Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler are clearly fans of the show, have oodles of energy and totally crack us up with some of their back and forth. Even Randy Jackson seems a bit looser and happier now that he's free from the rule of Simon and the ridiculousness of Paula.
But mother of all that is Idol, do they know ...
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Jimmy Iovine
It's taken five weeks, but the studio audience is finally starting to drop the "S" bomb: Simon. He was gone like a puff of black smoke. And in the hoopla surrounding the two new judges — glamour goddess Jennifer Lopez and rock god Steven Tyler — he was almost forgotten.
But that was before Pia Toscano was booted off the show, making it only to ninth place. And the fans, still touchy on the subject, are now trying to place blame. Eavesdrop on their conversations ...
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Pia Toscano
Less than two days after her shocking American Idol elimination, Pia Toscano has scored a record deal, Us Weekly reports.
The former Season 10 front-runner has joined Interscope Records, whose chairman is Idol mentor Jimmy Iovine, according to the magazine.
American Idol's Pia: I think Stefano took it worse than I did
"Pia is being signed to a deal with ...
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Naima Adedapo
Record-company executive Jimmy Iovine may be getting the lion's share of the credit for working with American Idol's Season 10 contestants. But the singers revealed after the show Wednesday nigh there is another music-industry heavyweight who's been coaching behind the scenes: Jennifer Lopez's husband, Marc Anthony.
"A lot of the struggle that had been going on in prior performances was that we hadn't adjusted to the 'In Ears,'" says Naima Adedapo, referring to the custom-made earpieces that singers often use to balance out sound levels when they're singing with a live band on a big stage...
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