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April 18, 2007

'American Idol' eye rolling controversy?

Apparently (at least according to Drudge Report and a radio station I heard on the way in to work) there is some controversy about whether American Idol judge Simon Cowell was rolling his eyes at Chris Richardson's mention of Virginia Tech on last night's show. (Here's video.) I didn't address it because I was typing my entry and not looking at the screen, so I missed it. Anyway, Richardson said his words about Virginia Tech like half a second after claiming that "nasally is a form of singing," and I have no doubt that Cowell was reacting to that ludicrous statement. Cowell himself said some nice words about the shooting at the end of the show, so let's not make a mountain out of a molehill.

Edited to add: A response from the producers has been posted at americanidol.com.

Edited again to add: Simon himself has responded and said he was talking to Paula about Chris having said he sang nasally on purpose and that he was not disrespecting Virginia Tech.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:48 AM | | Comments (8)
Categories: American Idol
        

Comments

I agree.

Or maybe Simon Cowell got caught, then was called out and made to say something on air as to not seem as heartless as he really is.

If you saw it, the timing was only right for him to be rolling his eyes about the V Tech comments.

I say fire him like you all fired Imus!

I believe the same ifo as justin, Simon Cowell got caught right after Chris had made his statement about v tech he did roll his eyes, i was tivo the show and I did reverse several times and Cowell did not roll the eyes after the nasal comment. the eye rolling was right after chris made a statement about he had some friends at that school and his heart went out to them. Cowell is heartless

Wow, I did make a lot of typos, LOL. I fixed them and here is a new version of my comment. Hopefully the moderator will switch these, but if not we'll just have two, or the wrong one..

To Geri playing detective. You say that you used TIVO to catch Simon rolling his eyes after the Virgina tech statement. YES, he did, BUT sometimes people delay in their actions AFTER they give it some thought. If you watch again, Simon ask Chris a direct question, "So that was intended to sing nasaly?". After he ask Chris that, my mind was completely on the nasal comment. I was then waiting for Chris to answer Simon. Ryan shot out "obviously", but it was so quick and echoed in the background that I hardly noticed. I was still waiting for Chris to answer about singing Nasal. When Chris started to talking about VT, I was actually thrown off as to what he was talking about for a few seconds. Then it became more clear. But what happened with Simon was that Chris Ignored his question at the same time that Simon just had one of those moments where he got annoyed with his comment which took several seconds to manifest. The camera guy came caught that he was annoyed over the nasal comment. So you can't just assume that because they coincided that he did that since people do delay their reactions sometimes. Also it's not likely for Simon to ignore a stupid comment on singing, but pay attention to the second vt comment. So his reaction would have to match with the first stupid comment from Chris about singing nasal.

Simon did roll his eyes after Chris' VT comments, not after Ryan and Chris spoke of singing nasaly. Everyone else reacted appropriately, why not Simon?
Comments from the other judges included Chris' "lack of emotion, no joy, no connection." It was obvious his heart was not in it, and for good reason. The VT tragedy is a very personal thing for Chris, and Simon dismissed the comments as if to imply that Chris was using it as an excuse for a less than stellar performance. Chris' voice cracked when he spoke of his friends. Everyone that lives in VA knows SOMEONE that has gone to or presently attends VT.
Simon's half-hearted attempts at redemption were shallow and obvious. For him to say he did not hear Chris' comment is "rubbish." He got caught conducting himself in his typical self-centered manner; only this time, his lack of empathy is disgusting and very public.

I say, Simon your attitude is Pitchy!!

now simons excuse is he couldnt hear what they were saying? just the other night he told the audience they can't hear the singing as well as he can, which is it? you got caught, you attitude has reached its limit.

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About Sarah Kelber
Sarah Kickler Kelber, an editor in the features department since 1999, got sucked into reality TV with the first episode of MTV's The Real World in 1992. Then came Survivor and American Idol, and suddenly, the genre was everywhere. She started blogging about it for The Baltimore Sun in January 2006 and has logged more hours watching and writing about such shows as Dancing With the Stars, Big Brother and, of course, Idol, than she'd like to admit.
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