Is it just me or do the So You Think You Can Dance judges seem a little too serious this year?
While Mary, Tice, and Nigel were getting absolutely livid with some of the contestants in South Carolina this week that other producers are putting through to get in front of the judges, I’m sitting there feeling anxiety about how angry they’re getting (I realize this is Dan Karaty in the picture).
On American Idol, Randy, Paula, and Simon put up with much worse and greater numbers, but they seem to have a sense of humor about it. I understand that dance is a different culture, but the producers shouldn’t be putting some of these people up against the judges if this is how they’re going to react.
The bad auditions get old, but they’re supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, their reactions are not making these not-so-hot auditions fun at all. I really hope that Tyce DiOrio isn’t a judge this season in place of Shane Sparks because I could hardly stand him for an hour of auditions today.
On the Charleston portion of tonight’s show, I really saw only two standouts. Unfortunately, one didn’t make it to Vegas (BJ Harris), but the other sailed right through without having to do the choreography.
One of the city’s best auditions came in Courtney Galiano
, who has just an unbelievable body that even the judges couldn’t resist talking about. She might not be as pretty in the face as some of the other contestants this year, but she definitely has Top 20 potential. She has some HUGE jumps and definitely knows how to work an audience.
While I wouldn’t say that Dallas had nearly the talent of Los Angeles, So You Think You Can Dance did have something going for it in the Lone Star State – a couple of hotties named Arielle Coker and Paige Jones.
Arielle Coker
, like Chelsie Hightower, looks like she was made for the Top 20. She’s not only a great dancer, but she’s VERY easy on the eyes. If she has a good partner, she could be one of the girls to really wow people if she makes it to (West) Hollywood. Arielle’s partner John Dix didn’t make it, but it looked like he was more there for her than he was for him anyways.
Here’s Arielle’s audition:
Every season of a good reality show needs a good hottie (or a few if we’re looking at SYTYCD last season in Jessie, Lauren, and Lacey) and Paige Jones could be that very hottie this season. She looked much better during the choreography round than she did in her solo in terms of dance, but she was hot throughout. The college student and pageant queen looks to be more Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
material than SYTYCD and I’d be surprised if she made the Top 20 – but pleasantly surprised if she improved to the level to make it to Hollywood.
So You Think You Can Dance took its show on the road to Salt Lake City, Utah this week. While the show spun the visit to Utah as a successful visit, I was mostly underwhelmed by the performances from the then-snow covered city.
While I’m sure that many of the show’s younger viewers won’t pick up on how the city was portrayed as being a breeding ground for huge families and messages like a “Joseph Smith is my Homeboy” t-shirt, I thought it was some interesting spin on the day’s auditions.
The show kicked off with what I thought was the top performance of the city in Chelsie Hightower, who I believe dances the cha-cha if my mildly trained dancing eyes (and feet) are correct. Chelsie has everything that you’d want to see in a Top 20 finalist – good looks, good moves, amazing legs, and some Lacey Schwimmer-like facial expressions that her unforgettable. What I really liked about Chelsie was that she didn’t even bring her own partner, but yet the partner dance turned out this well!
Here’s Chelsie’s audition:
I thought the next most memorable, perhaps not necessarily the next best, as I feel like Chelsie blew the rest of the city away in the first five minutes of the show, was Ryann Race, a freestyle hip-hop dancer who is a strip club DJ by day. I have a hard time seeing him make the Top 20, but it would be a nice change of pace. Clearly, Ryann barely made it through the choreography this week, so it seems likely that he’ll be an early Vegas exit, but one that we’ll remember.
A friend sent me this link to the Facebook Gangsta video that’s been going around the Internetz. I thought it was good enough to post. Facebook Gangsta from Facebook Gangsta
American Idol Season 7 winner David Cook launched his official YouTube page this week and left a message for all of his fans. Apparently, David is going to try and be a little more accessible than past Idol winners through his website and video blogs.
It’d be pretty sweet if fans got to go into the studio with him via YouTube so that they could check out the album’s progress, no? Either way, it’s a pretty cool way to get an already rabid fanbase to show even more love to this year’s American Idol.
Tonight, the much talked about premiere of Living Lohan, a Maloof/Lohan venture, finally aired on E!. Along with Ryan Seacrest’s new show Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, E! has a whole new lineup of reality based shows to fill the spots normally taken by Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Pop Fiction (is this still on?) during the offseason.
Instead of showing reruns, E! gets to keep showing Super New shows year round. Brilliant!
Despite my love for anything pop culture, I actually had very little idea about what Living would be about. Since she’s clearly out of my target demo, Ali Lohan, a 14 year old girl, was largely unknown to me. I knew that Dina Lohan played mom and manager to the girls, but I really didn’t know much about Ali and her singing/acting career.
Was this another Kardashians ? Or would this simply be hype for all of the upcoming Lohan projects?
What I got was something that was very different. It was a little intense at times, but it felt very real watching Mama Lohan try to manage one of Hollywood’s most sought after and hunted families. From checking the tabloids for the newest stories on Lindsay to trying to keep up with her daughter Ali’s next album release, the show looks like it will focus heavily on Dina Lohan trying to keep up with her daughters’ careers more than it will look at the family members’ relationships with one another (like Keeping).
While Chris Kardashian, Kim’s mother, plays a much calmer, nice manager/mom, Dina Lohan is all about business. Since Lindsay has been “in the biz” for so many years now, Dina is clearly media savvy and unafraid of anything that the paparazzi and tabloids will throw at her and her family. She has a sharp tongue, but I don’t think that it’s overdone at all. If you’ve ever worked in a talent management office, you have an understanding of how intense some of these conversations can get. When your daughter and biggest client is Lindsay Lohan, one of Hollywood’s biggest names, it just gets that much bigger.
This week’s episode focused on Ali’s singing career and pending second full album, which is also being produced by the Maloof brothers. While Ali is only 14 years old, she’s no doubt grown up quicker, but seems to lack some of the more smiley, innocent niceness that Lindsay had at a comparable age. It will definitely be interesting to see Ali at school to see what her “regular life” is like. Ali, like her mom, is very direct and speaks with a noticeable New York accent that hasn’t yet been tamed by the Hollywood scene.
While picking out tracks for her new album from producer and trusted new family friend Jeremy Greene, the family stumbled upon a blog rumor that Jeremy was dating sister Lindsay. Judging from the dates of the rumor, the show was shot in late January, early February, which is actually fairly recently for a reality show.
One Google search later, Jeremy went from the family’s favorite producer to a potential liar that could be piggybacking off the family’s notoriety and fame.
Living Lohan has the potential to be a decent show. While I don’t think that I necessarily am as interested in Ali’s life as I am the Kardashians’, it’s definitely interesting to watch Dina Lohan try and shape her daughter’s career having already been through one family superstar. As Ali’s 14 year old career grows, so will the rumor mill and challenges that await the family.
Living Lohan is a nice change of pace and actually feels fairly real because you can feel all the stresses that come with being part of the family, but really, people are just wondering if Lindsay is going to make a cameo at some point in the season.
In this summer of movie sequels (see Indiana Jones) and redos (The Incredible Hulk), the American Idol finale also saw George Michael take the Idol stage for the first time to sing “Praying for Time,” which Carrie Underwood performed earlier this year at Idol Gives Back.
I realize that George Michael made the song a hit, but at least on the Idol stage, I feel like Carrie was the one to take it to a new, higher, better level. Am I wrong?
We’re one week into the new season of So You Think You Can Dance. Since we’re only in auditions and there are just too many names for me to follow (Go to Blogging So You Think You Can Dance
for full recaps and such), I thought that I would post my favorite audition from each of the audition cities before we make it to this year’s Top 20.
Clearly, in the show’s “pimp spot,” popper Robert Muraine stole the show for the Los Angeles auditions. Check him out! In the words of the judges, we thought that Cedric from last year was pretty unique, but Robert changed the game. Let’s hope that he makes it through Vegas!
, and more) for its “Pork and Beans” music video. It’s pretty brilliant!
It’s already one of my favorite music videos of all time, but I wish that they had recruited Peer Pressure, one of my favorite YouTube celebrity crews.
I’ve been fortunate enough to attend both this year’s and last year’s finale parties. While the parties get extremely crowded, they always have good food, free drinks, and you end up running into some familiar faces, former Idols, and a bunch of other people who you’d otherwise never expect to see.
This year, a pleasant surprise was getting to meet much of the crew from last season’s So You Think You Can Dance, which premiered tonight on FOX, who were hanging out at a table together for much of the night.
While I saw the whole crew on the red carpet, I was working and wasn’t able to snap a picture of the side of their faces, let alone get a picture with them. As soon as I saw Lacey, who I believe to be the hottest dancer that I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t have been more excited and she was really cool about standing and smiling through some camera malfunctions.
Lacey, along with Ryan Seacrest, Lauren Conrad, and Eminem, is one of the few celebrities that I was still hoping to one day meet in real life. Somehow, I’ve been fortunate to literally have met most every celebrity that I’ve really dreamed of meeting, so getting to meet Lacey was an enormous thrill. I couldn’t be a bigger fan of hers!
Lauren Gottlieb and Sara Von Gillern hung out with one another for a good portion of the night. It was pretty cool seeing them just hang out and be regular, yet recognizable people.
The two went around taking pictures at the various sponsored photo booths and were really nice about snapping pictures with anyone who asked. I caught Sara’s mohawk on the red carpet earlier in the day and it definitely gives her a whole different look compared to what we were used to seeing! Both Lauren and Sara looked beautiful and took my admission that I lost all of last weekend to watching SYTYCD reruns on MTV in stride.
Lauren was actually a lot taller in real life than I expected! Not like she was a towering giant, but when she was always dancing with a male partner, it was oftentimes tough to tell that she’s actually pretty tall compared to the other girls in the competition.
Of course, Lauren is one of those girls who is so incredibly good looking that it’s almost hard to look her straight in the face because you know that you’ll pretty much just forget whatever you were about to say. So yes, I had nothing insightful to say to “Misha Chan,” but it was still pretty sweet to meet her!
Hanging out with Lacey, Pasha, and Anya for much of the night was hip-hop/breakdancer Hok Konishi. With his trademark ‘do, Hok is clearly impossible to miss. On the red carpet, he definitely looked happy to be hanging out with SYTYCD’s Dominic, who did some flares and halos on the red carpet right behind one of the TV Guide booths where Justin Guarini was taping a segment.
Ballroom partners Pasha and Anya were hanging out with the SYTYCD crew as well and I was hoping that they would bust out a few moves on the dance floor, but they didn’t as far as I know. I was outside with my co-workers for most of the night, so I might have missed out on a bunch of action.
I know that there will come a point in life when my luck runs out and moments like this won’t come up every couple months, so I really just tried to take it all in this year with less wide-eyed “oooooh Idol!!”-ness this time around.
Much of the Top 12 showed up to the party, but they were getting so mobbed with fans that it made it tough for any of them to really hang around. A bunch of them (Kristy Lee Cook, Jason Castro, maybe some others that I didn’t see) could only come in for a second, take a few pictures, then were quickly escorted away (to another party, I’d assume).
From this year, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay , Jason Yeager, Amy Davis, the night’s biggest celebrity Renaldo Lapuz (who took pictures all night long), along with Idol alumni Jasmine Trias, Sanjaya Malakar, and AJ Tabaldo braved the crowds, which actually weren’t nearly as bad as they would have been last year in the much more crowded venue next to the Kodak Theatre.
Amy Davis gave both Lacey and Lauren some competition for the title of “hottest SYTYCD/AI Alumna” at the afterparty. She had on a really pretty and glamorously short (if there is such thing?) white dress that made her impossible to miss all night. Amy was one of this year’s prettiest contestants. After meeting her, TV did not even get close to showing how beautiful the model and Idol semi-finalist is in real life!
The Idols all took the attention in stride and actually got to have some pretty normal nights, though Michael Johns was so instantly recognizable that a crowd seemed to follow him everywhere, but he was totally gracious about it. He made some half-jokes about how the second he stood still, everyone managed to find him, but if he kept moving, it was pretty normal.
I know a lot of people always wonder what the Idols are like in real life. While I didn’t spend an overwhelming amount of time with any of them, all of my run in’s with the Idols this year have all been beyond pleasant and it has been a joy to meet them.
They never seem bothered to exchange a few words and it would be tough for anyone to be dealing with the fanaticism and huge crowds that follow them everywhere that they go. They are constantly doing press, rehearsing, and nonstop interviews, while running on little sleep. I have no doubt that it gets exhausting, which is what makes it that much better that they are always as nice as they are.
Before I left, I got to meet Jasmine Trias, who came in third place during Season 3 (Fantasia’s year). Jasmine was spending a bunch of time with Ramiele Malubay and AJ Tabaldo at the party, but she made a point to take pictures with any fans who wanted to meet her. I was a huge Jasmine fan during Season 3 and lost a lot of sleep voting for her, so it was very cool to actually meet her in real life.
All in all, it was a hectic, but unforgettable night. Meeting Lacey Schwimmer was one of those once in a lifetime moments that I’ll never ever forget, along with having the chance to microblog the red carpet arrivals on the site’s biggest traffic night of the whole year.
Seeing as So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol are by far two of my very favorite TV shows, having them come together in one place for the perfect storm of perfect finale party made for a really great night.
And of course, congratulations to David Cook, our American Idol!
Is it just me or do the So You Think You Can Dance judges seem a little too serious this year?
Tonight, the much talked about premiere of 
While picking out tracks for her new album from producer and trusted new family friend Jeremy Greene, 
