Celeb Binge

Kansas City Royals fans can stop worrying about guilt as there won’t be 25 crying kids in the crowd when David Cook gets back into town. The American Idol contestant was approached by the baseball team to sing the national anthem at a game on May 9. The thing is 25 elementary kids were already book to do that job. Being the great guy that he is, David instead chose to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ during the 7th inning and throw out the first pitch. David was invited to the game because if he survives another week of Idol, he’ll be heading home to Missouri for a visit.

I’ve written about how Jeff Archuleta, American Idol contestant David’s dad, is the worst kind of stage dad there is. Jeff recently had an interview with Us where he fires back about there being no truth in the stories of him yelling at David Archuleta or withholding water. The funny thing is, he doesn’t even make it a point to deny being involved in his son’s life whether it’s song choice, starting in on David’s singing at age 4 or 5, giving him the video of Les Miserables to watch at age 6 and shoving Broadway musicals down his throat. He also took the chance to say that the judges overreact. Even when he denies being a stage dad, he eerily still sounds like one.

Whether you choose to listen to her or not, Jordin Sparks’ singing career isn’t losing any air as it isn’t anywhere near over. Alarms sounded when the American Idol champ had to cancel gigs this weekend because of what was described as “acute vocal chord hemorrhage” which led to speculation that her career is over. Her rep says that while the condition is serious, it’s manageable and she’ll be back on tour in May. They say that Jordin really needs to learn the meaning of vocal rest. She better learn fast or she’ll be opening housing developments soon.

Variety recently had a sit-down with Simon Cowell and he was asked to pinpoint a collective flaw in the cast of this year’s American Idol. Simon replied with “Personality. They are giving very safe answers to questions, making safe song selections. We are not getting a sense of who they are. We have to try to pull it out of them more. You cannot deliver an uninspired performance at the top of the show. And you can’t be up there imitating another singer.” What was Danny Noriega then, chopped liver? If he wanted personality, he should blame America for not voting for Danny.

As part of the American Idol ‘Idol Gives Back’ charity initiative, new US Postal Stamps are being released to help raise money. The special edition stamps will features the past six winners of the contest and will also feature this year’s winner. They will go on sale as part of a limited edition set with 100,000 20-stamp sheets for each Idol winner and will be sold through Stamps.com. Come May 12th, regular first class stamps will cost .42 cents each so each sheet would cost $8.40. But since they are for a good cause, the sheets will cost $19.99. Kelly Clarkson’s stamps are already on sale with each sheet containing 4 images. The other 5 winners’ stamps will be released over the next couple of weeks.

Do you still remember Josiah Leming? Here’s a refresher course for those who already forgot. He was the American Idol contestant who made it to Hollywood but didn’t get into the top 24. He also happens to be living in his car when the auditions were going on. What’s so special right? One record industry source is saying that Warner Bros. Records has offered the kid a deal. It just hasn’t been signed yet but they say it’s close. Here’s a kicker though. A prominent record industry honcho is saying that “With Warner as a label, he’ll be back in his car before he knows it. Everyone knows they are not good for his kind of music.”

Here’s another piece of American Idol news and this one may be a shocker. Season 1 contestant Nikki McKibbin was recently placed under psychiatric observation for 72 hours after suffering a severe breakdown in late February. According to a police report, Nikki called a friend and told her that she wanted to kill herself. Said friend then called the police who arrived to find Nikki with a number of pills in her hand. Nikki refused to cooperate with the police and reportedly tried to kick out the windows of the cop car. Her unraveling may be attributed to having released an album in 2007 to a lukewarm response and the sudden death of her mother last August. Times may be tough but suicide is never the answer.

Has Vin Diesel gone completely off the golden path that he’s mistaken for an American Idol contestant? Or has Chris Daughtry gained so much recognition that his being mistaken for a Hollywood actor?

The Hollywood Reporter claims that Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are in talks to come together for the 4th instalment of ‘The Fast and the Furious’. The print of the report may have showed a picture of the two actors but the website showed a picture of Idol contestant Chris Daughtry and Vin’s name below it.

Sure, more people may have seen Chris on Idol than they did Vin in ‘The Pacifier’ but come on! But don’t blame THR though, if you go to Getty Images and search for Vin, you’re going to get Chris too.