Reality Check

'Dancing With the Stars' semifinal performances

Mon, 12 May 2008 21:36:07 -0500

Tonight, the final four couples face off on Dancing With the Stars. They'll each do two dances, one Latin and one ballroom, drawn from a giant disco ball, of course.

Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska are up first -- their dances of the night are foxtrot and paso doble. They hope to show how far he's come with the foxtrot since it's been so long since he had to perform it. He also gets a pep talk from Dan Marino via tape and is told not to come home without the mirror ball trophy. Their foxtrot, to "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," is graceful and cheeky and definitely achieves their goal of showing how much Jason has learned this season. He looks comfortable and like he's having a great time. Head judge Len Goodman is up first: "Honestly, ... like a dolphin glides through the sea, that's how you moved on the dancefloor. ... The whole thing was great." Bruno Tonioli says he was a showman and had great movement. Carrie Ann Inaba says he had great posture, a lot more content and did a great job. Scores: 9-10-9, for a 28/30.

Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani draw rumba and quickstep. Stacy Keibler stops by to talk with Marissa about what it's like to dance and train with Tony and how difficult it is to have chemistry with him when they don't find him sexy (he doesn't look too pleased). Their quickstep is OK -- there are a couple of slow parts that seem particularly slow for the quickstep, though. Bruno says, "You missed a jete on the big run. This is the semifinal; at this stage, we look at things like that." Carrie Ann says she's turned into the unlikely contender and that she did a great, classic quickstep. Bruno says he has to take into consideration the difficulty level of this dance, but that she did a great job. Scores: 9-9-8, for a 26/30.

'Idol' stage dad gets the boot

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:58:01 -0500

There had been some vague rumblings that David Archuleta's dad, Jeff, had a little bit of a stage dad thing going on. But late last week, news broke that Jeff Archuleta had been banned from rehearsals and backstage goings-on. He'll still get to sit in the audience and wave frantically during the show, though.

The story, reported by TMZ.com and the Associated Press, says that Jeff Archuleta interfered with David's performance last week, suggesting he supplement his performance of "Stand by Me" with a verse from Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls," which samples "Stand by Me." Producers said no, David did it anyway, Jeff's now banned. The unapproved change probably has some royalty implications, among other problems.

Read the original TMZ report, the AP story and today's People.com report, which has family friends saying that Jeff can't help with arrangements anymore because it's "a fairness issue." And in case you can't get enough, USA Today has an interesting analysis of the whole situation here.

'Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites' finale

Sun, 11 May 2008 22:13:56 -0500

Ah, blindsiding the blindsiders. What a fitting end to this season of Survivor.

The final four -- Parvati, Amanda, Cirie and Natalie -- went into what they thought was their final immunity challenge. Amanda won, and stuck with her alliance, sending Natalie packing.

But then the shocker: there would be another immunity challenge, taking them to a final two. Amanda won yet another challenge and tearfully voted out Cirie.

After one last night, Amanda and Parvati then faced the jury. (And I'm going to live-blogging and switching to present tense.)

Eliza is up first. She talks to Parvati about respecting her strategic game, but not the other things she did that made her seem like a mean person. She then tells Amanda that she also respects her strategic game, but finds her to be very superficial otherwise. (Her exact words are more along the lines of: "Your voice often made me literally want to kill myself.") Nice.

Jason asks Amanda if she would have told Ozzy about the plan if she'd known about it. Amanda says yes. He asks Parvati about her redeeming qualities, and she says her protectiveness and loyalty to her main alliance (Amanda and Cirie). And also that she didn't kill Gloria the chicken.

Alexis asks Parvati what makes her a better role model than Amanda for young girls. She says she is more outspoken and bolder. She then talks to Amanda about what part of her game was genuine -- adding that they were laughing at her tears in the last TC since she acted so hard during the play of the immunity idol.

Natalie asks Parvati how playing the flirt card in the game, "How does that translate in the bedroom?" Huh? Parvati admitted to flirting with girls and guys to get her way at home and in the game. She calls Amanda out for her "glazed-over look" on her face, and was that her strategy or was that just who she was. Amanda says she is a little reserved and that she believes she played a strategic and intellectual game.

Erik says that a few days ago, he 100 percent would have been voting for Amanda, but now he has a lot of questions. He says he felt thrown under the bus at two TCs. Amanda says everything she said at the TCs was honest, that she was hurt during those times. She says she's sorry, but he says it's too late, and he doesn't buy it.

James tells Jeff is finger is all right. James says he's not going to be mean, he thinks Amanda has it in the bag. So he asks Parvati to ... be more honest? She says, "Gotcha, sucka." He says that isn't what he is looking for. Parvati says she had no chance to win sticking with James and Ozzy, so she had to make the move against Ozzy when she did.

Cirie congratulates both of them. She asks Amanda why she deserves the million more than Cirie. Amanda says she thinks Parvati made bolder decisions and "was the powerhouse." She asks Parvati why Cirie should be in the final two instead of her. Parvati says she played a brilliant under the radar game, but she couldn't compete with a mother of three. Parvati asks for like the third time if her answer was good enough.

Ozzy says he thinks he's the biggest idiot up here and that he is to the bottom of his heart hurt by Parvati's move. He says she put a price on their friendship and she discarded him like garbage. (HELLO, IT IS A GAME, OZZY.) He says he doesn't want to talk to her, but he adds that the worst thing was she took away 14 more days he could have spent with Amanda. (Oooh, showmance lives!) He tells Amanda that he was not and is not faking his feelings for her -- "I honestly feel like I started to fall in love with you." Call me callous (or burnt out), but that was kind of barfy.

The votes we see: Erik votes for Amanda, saying she played a good game; Alexis votes for Parvati; Natalie votes for Parvati; and Ozzy votes for Amanda. Eliza has to be all dramatic and not cast her vote for like seven years, of course.

To the live finale, where suddenly makeup is in abundance.

Votes: Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati and Parvati.

So ... Parvati is the winner, and she is shocked. She's not the only one! What do you think?

(I'll update a little later with more from the finale.)

(Hey, there wasn't a car challenge!)

'Survivor': Did that really just happen?

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:43:56 -0500

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

OK, I think I'm ready to talk about tonight's Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites. Nope, not quite yet.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Four blindsides in a row? FOUR? I just ... I mean ... Not to get all Grey's Anatomy on you, but seriously?

OK, so let's start at the beginning, where poor little Erik was feeling so bad about the strategic guilt trip that Amanda gave him at last week's tribal council. He and Natalie discussed what they had to do next, and that included him sending her to Exile Island if he won reward, so she could look for the hidden immunity idol.

Later, though, Amanda decided to work him over and offer him the chance to "redeem" himself if he would take her own reward if he won and send Parvati to Exile (since she is so weak). I thought for sure he saw through her, but ...

'Hell's Kitchen' doesn't disappoint despite misleading previews

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:57:02 -0500

This week’s episode of Hell’s Kitchen was a prime example of misleading previews.

Last week, the show teased that someone would return to the show. I immediately thought about Julia and Melissa from last season. No such luck. There were no additions to the Hell’s Kitchen crew this week. And according to previous previews, Louross and Corey were suppose to become romantically linked. No such luck on any romantic hookups. Corey informed viewers during a confessional that she had a boyfriend, and that she was only flirting with Louross to advance in the game. (She’s quickly becoming a true reality television villain.)

Anywho, I actually enjoyed the episode without the payoff promised in previous previews. Once again, Gordon Ramsay’s antics were enough to fill an entire hour with plenty of excitement.

'American Idol' results: Top 3 revealed

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:01:26 -0500

Will Jason Castro finally get the boot on tonight's American Idol? Only time (about 59 minutes worth) will tell.

Host Ryan Seacrest says nearly 51 million votes came in, and that the top three were all within a million votes of one another.

The group sing (tonight, to "Reelin' in the Years") looks even sillier, choreography-wise, with so few people left.

Results: David Archuleta comes out first, and I wish they would stop making him talk. He's safe, by the way.

Then there's a bit on the final four's trip to see Love in Vegas.

More results: David Cook gets called forward, and he, too, is safe. Syesha Mercado and Jason Castro come out, and Jason asks if Ryan is really going to tell them already (since it's only like 24 minutes into the show). Ryan says no. (And again, he never said this was the "bottom two." Just that one of them is going home.)

After their Ford commercial, the contestants look suitably embarrassed.

Viewer questions. That's all I have to say about that.

Maroon 5 performs a song from 2007, which is far more current than what the contestants have had to work with this season.

Then season four's Bo Bice performs his new song "Witness."

Finally, the last of the results: Jason says that someone told him last night that he shot the tambourine man, which is kind of funny. He also says that he thinks his inexperience is starting to show this late in the competition. Syesha is safe, and Jason is going home. Whew. I think even he would have thought it was a travesty if he had stayed.

Ryan says he seems relieved, and Jason says he is because next week, it's three songs, and he doesn't know what he would have done. He sings out with "I Shot the Sheriff," and it's all over.

'Dancing With the Stars': 100th episode celebration, and an elimination

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:44:22 -0500

We've got two hours of Dancing With the Stars tonight so the show can celebrate its 100th episode (and host Tom Bergeron's birthday, as I learned on Entertainment Tonight a little while ago. Please don't judge me).

The first hour features the judges' favorite dances from the first five seasons. No. 10 is Kelly Monaco's freestyle from the season one's week six. No. 9 is Sabrina Bryan's paso doble from season five. No. 8 is Emmitt Smith's cha-cha-cha from season three. No. 7 is Apolo Anton Ohno's seaon four quickstep. No. 6 is Joey Fatone's season four jive. No. 5 is Helio Castroneves' season five quickstep (in the giant yellow suit). No. 4 is Drew Lachey's freestyle from season two's finale. No. 3 is Stacy Keibler's season two samba. No. 2 is Mel B's paso doble from season five. No. 1 is Mario Lopez's tango from season three.

I didn't watch the first season, but I learned from this clip show that the standards are a lot higher now. During that Kelly Monaco dance, there were a bunch of parts where they paused to make sure they started the next part together, and she was looking at her partner's feet a bunch. Interesting.

Let's get on with the results show, shall we?

* They kick things off with a big group dance from the pros to "Hard to Handle."

* Montage from last night.

* Backstage, Samantha Harris talks to the five remaining stars, all of whom feel at risk, glad to be there and hope to still be around next week.

* Rascal Flatts performs, and Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough dance along with them. (They rock, by the way.)

* Tom Bergeron talks to a bunch of past cast members, who are in the audience. Stacy Keibler says she emailed George Hamilton to see if he would be around. Lisa Rinna says she is doing lots of cardio ballroom. Jerry Springer says his hip still hurts. Vivica A. Fox says she's retired her stilettos. Joey Fatone says he's still bitter, and Kenny Mayne says he's tired of being Tom's punchline, and Sabrina just gets to say "thank you" after Tom says Kenny used all her time.

* Mario Lopez and the cast of Broadway's A Chorus Line hit the stage to perform.

* Rascal Flatts returns, and Mel B and Maksim Chmerkovskiy dance.

* Kelly Monaco tells Samantha she's for Kristi. Apolo says he's for the athletes, but probably Kristi because he's partial to skaters. Drew says his money is on Cristian.

* Results, finally: Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani are safe, as are Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas. After a break, more results: Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke are safe, which leaves Mario and Jason Taylor as the last two stars standing. Leaving are Mario and Karina Smirnoff, meaning Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska are safe.

* Mario says: "I've had a great time performing on this show, I've had a great partner, we've had some great competition. ... Len, thank you for all your comments. Ultimately, you've helped me become a better ballroom dancer. And the comment about me being brave and being an inspiration for young people. I want to say that the real brave ones are the young men and women fighting for our country."

Well, that's a classy exit for our hometown contestant. How do you feel about the results?

'American Idol': Top 4 perform

Tue, 06 May 2008 21:06:09 -0500

As American Idol starts tonight, Ryan Seacrest says that three of the top four have had the largest number of votes at one point or another. That's just his way of saying: VOOOOOTE.

The theme this evening is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which leads into a history lesson on rock.

David Cook is up first, and he'll be singing Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf," and he plans to turn it on its head. The audio seems a little odd -- his vocals are loud, but the band and the background singers are kind of muted. Thankfully, he's got a good voice, though I think the discrepancy in volume between the band and his vocals made him come off a little bit shouty. Also, I'm not sure how much he changed up the song -- seemed pretty straight-forward to me. Randy Jackson says it was an OK choice and a solid performance, but that was "just OK." Paula Abdul says his "Hungry Like a Wolf" left her with a healthy appetite. Simon Cowell says it was "a little bit copycat" and he didn't really make it his own like he has in other weeks, but it was good enough to get him through to next week, no problem.

Syesha Mercado tells Ryan she's so excited about the Top 10 tour and getting to meet her fans. Her first song is "Proud Mary," which she says has been covered more than 100 times. She admits she was nervous, but she told herself to just do it and have fun with it. She's definitely not trying to avoid that "copycat" line -- she's gone on a Tina-esque silver dress, and she replicates some of Ms. Turner's choreography, too. Did she have fun with it and entertain the crowd? Absolutely, but vocally it wasn't insanely awesome, and this is the final four. Randy says this is the third week she's shown up and been "in the zone. ... Very nice, very nice, very nice." Paula says she looks like a star and that she's turned into this woman with a magnetic voice and presence. Simon says he's sorry to put a slight damper on things, and that he thought it was "a bad impersonation of Tina Turner." She says she was just trying to have fun. He says, "Good. I didn't."

'Dancing With the Stars': week eight performances

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:39:11 -0500

On tonight's Dancing With the Stars, the contestants will take on two dances -- and they'll be allowed one lift per dance. Plus, we'll see how Cristian de la Fuente handles his injured arm.

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas will be doing quickstep and samba this evening. In the intro footage, Kristi really wants to take advantage of the opportunity to do lifts, but Mark isn't so sure. He finally agrees to add one to their quickstep, which is their first dance. It's fun and fast and seems fairly traditional, though the lift in question ends up being, well, kind of lame after all that buildup. Judge Len Goodman says that dance cheered him up to no end and says it had "great light and shade." Bruno Tonioli says Kristi is a supercandidate with a super ticket for the final. Carrie Ann Inaba liked that they danced toward the judges, but she says that at one point, they got a little hair out of sync. Scores: 9-10-10, for a 29/30.

Mario and Karina Smirnoff practice the jive and the Viennese waltz. Their waltz is first, and he's determined to show that he can be an elegant dancer, since Len said last week that was not his strong point. I'm not a ballroom expert, but he looks pretty dapper to me. Bruno calls him "Prince Mario," and says he had "polish and distinction, poise, restraint." Yeah, he liked it. Carrie Ann says his posture was the best thus far and she thought the lift "completely enhanced your routine." Len says, and I quote, "Normally, your ballroom dancing reminds me a bit of Britney Spears getting out of a car: Not very elegant, you sometimes see odd things you'd rather not, but tonight I thought that was the most elegant I've seen you dance. ... Gorgeous, floating movement, good job." Wow, Len, don't mince any words. Backstage, always on point Samantha Harris tells Mario that he got some fantastic comments from the judges. Um. Eventually. Scores: 9-9-9, for a 27/30.

Host Tom Bergeron: "Coming up, more frightening analogies from Len."

Another 'Survivor' blindsiding

Fri, 02 May 2008 23:38:29 -0500

What a lot of drama there's been on this season of Survivor. Thursday's episode was no exception.

James became the third person to leave this season without being voted off, thanks to an infection in his finger that could have threatened his finger, if not his entire hand, if he didn't get it taken care of. (And how dramatic was it when he showed up at tribal council to take his seat on the jury carting an IV stand pumping him full of antibiotics?)

The whole episode was just wacky. Alexis took a middle-of-the-night tumble and hurt her leg. Then, the contestants had a reward challenge that was perfect for this mean-girls group. It was the typical one where everyone answers questions about the tribe in secret and then they have to guess how the majority answered. Whoever answered correctly had to hack at the rope by a little clay statue of each contestant -- three hacks at your rope, and you were out (with a vengeance -- the wooden stake crushed the heads violently). Those challenges always reveal who is at the top and the bottom of the totem pole, and it became pretty obvious that Amanda didn't have a lot of standing with the other women.

Alexis won reward and chose Cirie and Natalie (oh yeah, and their loved ones, who showed up at the beginning of the challenge) to go with her. Amanda volunteered to be the one sent to Exile Island, where they'd been told the idol had been rehidden.

Siriano takes on 'Ugly Betty'

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:14:40 -0500

Guest blogger John-John Williams reports:

He said “fierce.” He called one character a “hot tranny mess.” And more important he was mentioned by name at least a half dozen times during last night’s episode of ABC’s hit Ugly Betty.

Christian Siriano indeed made his mark on the dramedy, which takes a satirical look at the fashion magazine industry through the lives of employees at Mode, a fictional magazine based in New York City.

Although his appearance was pretty brief, he packed in his usual outdated catch phrases. (Seriously, who in their right mind still says “fierce” and “work it”?)

Siriano – accompanied by three stunning models wearing designs that I’m pretty sure he designed – played himself on the episode. (I’m also pretty sure that one of the show’s stars Rebecca Romijn was wearing one of his designs.)

Anywho, writers were able to work Siriano into the storyline by having the Mode editors attempt to persuade the Project Runway winner to unveil some of his new designs in an upcoming issue. Siriano was accompanied by Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, who appeared to be acting as his agent during the show. She described him as a “diva” before he made his entrance.

Siriano is the latest guest star to arrive on the Betty set this season. Others include: Victoria Beckham, who has worn Siriano’s designs in the past; Dawson’s Creek alum James Van Der Beek; and Celebrity Apprentice alum Gene Simmons, who flashed his freakishly long tongue. Diva supermodel and frequent flyer Naomi Campbell is scheduled to appear at the end of this season.

Siriano is definitely part of an eclectic mix.

Down to four on 'America's Next Top Model'

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:13:50 -0500

Guest blogger John-John Williams IV reports:

The girls did two photo shoots last night.

The first required them to dress as ancient gladiators. Whitney won and received a shopping spree. She took Anya along to share in the spoils.

The second shoot was the one that really counted. Head judge Tyra Banks stepped in as the photographer for this challenge, which added extra pressure on the contestants. (I think they knew that Tyra would pick up on every little nuance and problem during the shoot and bring it up during the panel judging. They were right.)

Fatima did a phenomenal job. Dominique surprised Tyra with a great shoot. Anya was also good. Whitney's posing looked "hoochified," according to Tyra. Katarzyna simply had the weakest photos. Tyra had to coach her too much. (It's a shame too, because I think Katarzyna was one of the stronger competitors.)

'American Idol': Songs Sung Bleh

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:55:09 -0500

All right, there's been some back-and-forth this week about whether this season of American Idol has been blah because of the themes or boring contestants or the show just running out of steam.

I think it's some combination thereof, but I'm still of the mind that the themes have been causing some of the mind-numbingness of season seven.

Consider this. Last season, for the Top 16 and the Top 20, the contestants had no constraints, except that the Top 20 had to dedicate the song to a friend or family member. So they were all over the board in styles, genres and eras.

Yes, the Top 12 had to do the songs of Diana Ross, and the Top 6 had to do the songs of Bon Jovi, but the other mentor nights were more open: British Invasion, No Doubt songs and songs by artists who inspired the band, American classics with Tony Bennett (but this made the throwback theme an anomaly, not just another old-fashioned week), Latin night with Jennifer Lopez (including songs by Santana, Gloria Estefan and others), country week with Martina McBride (with songs by Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Bonnie Raitt and Rascal Flatts).

So in the 12 weeks I looked back at, the contestants got to cover much more ground than just "Beatles" or "the '80s" or "Dolly Parton" or whatever. We've gotten variety when the singers have gone with new arrangements, but taken together, this season's song choices have been pretty stale.

And it's almost too late to do anything about it.

Sounds like the show is planning to make some changes in future seasons, based on the questions in a viewer survey, but these sure seem like the wrong questions to me.

What do you think?

Local couple featured on 'Whose Wedding?'

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:08:17 -0500

Guest blogger Karlayne Parker reports:

In planning her wedding, bride Christine Johnson of Baltimore let her wedding planner know Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

On the Style Network show, which aired earlier this week, this DIY bride relinquished little to Vicky Johnson of area event-planning business holy matrimony on the big day at Tagart Memorial Chapel on the campus of McDonogh School,

Who made the wedding cake? Christine did.

Actually, Christine made just about everything: the cake, the invitations, selected the reception hall (with her fiance), the color scheme for the wedding, and she did her own hair and makeup on her wedding day.

She was very decisive, to say the least.

"I’m trying to take things off her plate but she wants to keep them," Johnson told the reality show cameras. "I’m not going to fight with her."

In the end, Johnson managed to put her organizing skills to work for the bride and groom. There were a few glitches, though.

The episode reairs at 11 a.m. tomorrow on the Style Network. Go to mystyle.com for details on each show.

Christian Siriano: When reality meets script

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:24:05 -0500

Guest blogger John-John Williams IV reports:

Christian Siriano, the former Annapolis resident/Project Runway winner/walking stereotype, will be making an appearance tonight on my favorite show, Ugly Betty.

Regardless of your personal feelings about the guy, it is undeniable that he is the most recognizable Project Runway winner ever. I can’t remember the last time a contestant on the show had this much buzz.

Name one who was spoofed on Saturday Night Live (see clip above)? I can’t remember one making national headlines for being a judge for the Miss USA competition. Can you remember the last Runway contestant who hosted awards shows? And now Ugly Betty.

What’s next? Hopefully, we’ll see a successful clothing line. After all, isn’t that why he won the competition?