“Tossing in other factors—such as perceived fan base, song selection and voter alienation (I’m talking to you Mr. Lusk)—I think the voted bottom three may be Jacob, Stefano and a Haley/Paul toss-up.”

First, I’ll say two out of three ain’t bad.  Next, who could have seen Pia being in the bottom three let alone going home this week?  If she didn’t improve her stage presence and connection then sure a run into the finale would have been more difficult.  Just didn’t see the doors closing this week. 

 Other random thoughts:

• Seeing footage of Gwen Stefani behind the scenes “helping” with the outfits just made her lack of vision outside of what works for her more obvious.  To Lauren, “I would wear that.”  Yeah, maybe you would, but the plaid-checked bustier and short shorts would work better on a boyish stick figure then on a curvy teenager.
• Iggy Pop.  Iggy Pop on American Idol the family show.  Did you see the mic thrust thing he did early on by his crotch?  Wee.  The camera man had fun trying to quickly pan away from that.  I get the whole Rock Hall connection, but producers this so didn’t fit.
• Contantine Maroulis returns.  He’s now in the touring company of “Rock of Ages” and a new father.  He performs a rocked out version of “Unchained Melody.”  It started off weird for me then veered into bleeding ears territory.  I remember him as a past contestant and his rockerish vibe, but I remember the pleasing tonal qualities of his voice and not this screeching.  I’ll chalk this up to me not liking the arrangement.  Anyway, I still like him and wish many kudos for his theater career.  Big bummer they aren’t going with him for the lead in the movie (the director wanted to cast “to age” and he’s 35).  He deserved that shot.
• Can we get a style intervention for Jacob?  The outward image of his Mister Rogers clothing is not projecting “Idol winner.” 
• Was it just me or did Haley look like she just came in from a night at the truck stop?  Now that Pia is gone, maybe she can raid her outfit options. 
• Heh.  I wonder if the judges are still patting themselves on the back for being so brilliant when using the save on Casey.  Wish you had that puppy back tonight, didn’t you?
• Should Paul, Scotty, Haley, Lauren and Stefano have gone before Pia?  Without hesitation.  Was America completely wrong?  No.  In their own ways, the other contestants connected at higher levels in their performances last night.  I even admitted that Haley picked a much better song, thus improving a bit this week.  That forward momentum (or at least changes) of the others against weeks of Pia’s stagnant ballads just caught up with her.  When she finally brought something new, the weakness of her stage presence glared brighter because we were all paying more attention.  Coming in just as ok during this stage of the competition with a group this vocally talented is a dangerous thing. 
• Oh yeah, they shared that Russell Brand showed up during the week for some heckling … rather mentoring and that the group visited the TMZ set.  Both pointless screen filler.
• Jacob is still going to be in danger next week.  For anyone who didn’t hear his rude intro tape babble yesterday, Ryan was generous enough to repeat the line tonight before getting around to letting Jacob know he was safe.  Did Jacob learn anything from that tense moment?  Can’t say, but let’s hope so.

Flickr image by Steve Kay