Jennifer Hudson, staying flexible
Jennifer Hudson is flipping out. The Oscar-winning actress and Chicago native pops off her chair in the middle of a swanky New York hotel suite where she will proceed to freak out everyone in the room.
Hands over her head, she begins to lean backward and allows her entire body to fall toward the expensive rose carpeting.
“Oh, honey. No traction here. When I get stressed out, I do deep backbends, ” says Hudson, who arches her back and gracefully falls backward until she just about hits the floor with her palms.
‘Idol’ David Cook shines with Collective Soul tune
Why is Cook’s ‘Dream’ so big?
The weirdest thing about David Cook’s sudden smash success after his “American Idol” win isn’t that he landed three songs in the iTunes Top 10 – the coronation song “The Time of My Life” at No. 1, his pick of the original songs “Dream Big” at No. 7 and his cover of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” at No. 10 – it’s the ones that America has chosen to embrace.
Most would say his take on
Collective Soul’s “The World I Know” was his best performance, but it is the weakest chart performer of his songs, currently at No. 18. Is that because people realized they don’t really like that song, even if he did do a good job with it?
CMA Music Festival begins
The 2008 CMA Music Festival (formerly known as “Fan Fair”) gets under way Thursday with country superstars Taylor Swift, Kellie Pickler, Montgomery Gentry and more headlining the first of the nightly concerts at LP Field.
Over the weekend, fans can look forward to performances from Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Sara Evans, Billy Ray Cyrus and dozens of others.
America’s got our talent
It has been called …the longest walk in history by Ant and Dec, the show hosts. Simon Cowell, the notoriously scathing judge on Britain Got Talent, walked slowly down the studio steps last night gladhanding every loose palm that he could see.
He had plenty of time. Whatever the outcome ‘ and last night final of the ITV talent show was a close call between a quartet of glamorous string players, a 12-year-old schoolgirl with an angelic voice and a dancing dog ‘ Cowell was the real winner. As well as being its star turn, he also invented the programme.
Last night it drew an estimated 12m viewers against 8m for the BBC Id Do Anything, a search to find the new Nancy for Andrew Lloyd Webber forthcoming West End production of Oliver!
Britain gets talent fever in TV showdown
Britain showed it had more talent than loose change last night as 20m people stayed at home to watch the showdown between the nation biggest reality shows.
Britain Got Talent was set to win the ratings war for ITV with at least 12m viewers after whittling down 10, 000 wannabes who attended auditions to 10 finalists.
In the end it was a people victory for a comeback kid who so wowed audiences with his update of Gene Kelly Singin in the Rain that it has been picking up 2m views a day on YouTube.
Simon Cowell says Britain’s Got Talent’s Faryl will get £20m deal
Britain’s Got Talent sensation Faryl Smith is set to earn £20million before she’s 20.
And last night music svengali Simon Cowell hailed her as better than opera star Katherine Jenkins – who is 12-year-old Faryl’s idol – and Charlotte Church.
Cowell, who already has Faryl primed for international superstardom, said: “I know she says Katherine is her idol but she is far better than her. She is by far the most talented youngster I’ve ever heard. When she opens her mouth her voice is just incredible.”
Cowell, who propelled X Factor winner Leona Lewis to stardom in the US, said: “We’ve uncovered an absolutely massive singing talent. Full stop.”
Talent? It’s survival of the sweetest
As of last night, Britain’s Got Talent (ITV1) is over, though some of us (or possibly just me) are still reeling from last Tuesday’s shock decision by the show’s judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Whatsisface, to deny the hot young person’s ‘street’ dance combo (er, daddio), Flava, a place in last night’s Grand Final in favour of those dimpled and simpering dance-tots the Cheeky Monkeys.
Words including ‘travesty’, ‘mockery’ and ‘sham’ all spring to mind, as do ‘shameless’, ‘attempt’, ‘to’ ‘drum up’, ‘even’, ‘more’ and, indeed, ‘publicity’ – a shockingly cynical strategy which has, however, completely failed to backfire, if only because here I am embarking on what will certainly turn out to be numerous paragraphs of slobbering praise for The Greatest TV Format Ever Devised (Probably).
Yes, indeedy, I don’t merely like Britain’s Got Talent, I absolutely (insert profanity of choice) adore it, despite the fact that this time around I cried less often than A Holden, when last year I out-sobbed her night after night.
