The Lee DeWyze vs Nigel Lythgoe twitter war seemed to finally simmer down this afternoon. But let’s hope things don’t heat up again now that Lee has offered a more detailed explanation of what went down on his end of the disagreement to The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview:
THR: Beyond the question of you performing was the issue of handing a trophy to season 10 winner Scotty McCreery. Nigel Lythgoe tweeted just after 1:00 a.m the night of the finale, “I was so upset Lee DeWyze wouldn’t present the winners trophy to Scotty. Especially as he’d been on the show this Season. I guess he was shy.” Did you take that as a jab?
DeWyze: The viewers and the people who vote on American Idol, I don’t think they’re stupid. When someone says something like that, you can make of it what you will. But if he or anyone thinks that I’m a shy person, just sit with me for a minute and talk to me, you’ll find out very quickly that I’m not. Why he said that, I can’t speak for him. He’s the big shot but it came down to simple facts for me: I was not asked to perform on the show, which was something I was hoping to be a part of since it was such a big part of my life, and a last-second scramble — whether it was a week, a minute or a month — seemed inappropriate and kind of ridiculous. I thought, rather than getting up there and being in Scotty’s limelight while he’s going through the biggest change in his life, I would much rather be a viewer. So yes, when Nigel tapped me on the shoulder and asked to “borrow” me, I said no, and next thing I know, he’s talking about it publicly. I don’t know what point he’s trying to make, but it’s really not a big deal to me anymore. I’m over it.
THR: Although it continued earlier today when Nigel tweeted that the trophy hand-off had been discussed for a week …
DeWyze: I think that once they realized that people were talking about the fact that I wasn’t performing, I was asked if I wanted to partake in some trophy situation. I didn’t know the details of it, but I know I didn’t need a consolation. I didn’t want them to throw me a bone because I didn’t perform, but besides that, in my mind, there was no reason for a past contestant to be onstage as the new Idol is crowned. It’s not the passing of the torch. I just didn’t feel it was appropriate … Also, that’s never been done before. When past winners have won, there aren’t other winners on stage. And I wanted it to be Scotty’s thing. I didn’t want to be, “Hey, here I am, look, ” and find some poor excuse to get some TV time. It was made clear that it was something I wouldn’t be doing.
So, it sounds like to me, that Idol may have contacted Lee’s people to see if he’d be willing to present the trophy. The answer sent back was “no.” But then Nigel persisted in the minutes leading up to the winner’s announcement at the finale, asking Lee personally if he would do it, and the answer was still NO. Nigel got pissed and tweeted the passive-aggressive tweet heard round the Idol blog-o-sphere.
Lee also had this to say about Nigel, “I’m not mad at Nigel either, but since he took it publicly, I wasn’t just going to lay down… I can’t get inside his brain or make him think one way or another about me, but at the end of the day, it’s clear to me that shots were taken.” and on his feelings now about Nigel, “I can’t say there’s anything that’s made me want to go have a drink with the guy. But who knows? Maybe I’ll run into him sometime and it will be a handshake and a hello. But I’m over it. It’s not a big deal to me.”
