Kevin Covais, American Idol
Chicken Little ran out of cluck, I guess you could say. (OK, that's it for the nickname jokes.) Last week on Fox's American Idol (Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET), no amount of cooing from Paula could save Kevin Covais' goose, as the little-too-adorable 16-year-old sang his final song, a rendition of this reporter's wedding song, "When I Fall in Love" (not that I hold it against him).
If anything, the extrication from the spotlight might — someday — let Kevin's adopted moniker fade away, not that he minded it much. "I'm loving it," he told TVGuide.com the morning after his ouster, "because I'm a fun-loving guy and I enjoy that type of stuff. I'm sarcastic and witty, I have a sense of humor, so I really appreciate it. And it's nothing agains
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Noah Wyle, ER
American IdolAt the top of the show, Ryan Seacrest announced that he had good news and bad news. Four more people would leave, but Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood was on hand to perform. And I was left wondering where the good news was. The "original farm girl" took the stage to tepid applause, but Melissa McGhee was up on the balcony singing right along and studying every stage move... all one of them. I just hope the next Idol winner can move more than one arm at a time. Naturally, before elimination time we had to suffer through another awful group song. I'll give a Reader's Digest version of my notes: bad attempt at harmony, bad camera angle, bad outfits, extremely bad dancing. Can't wa
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Emilie de Ravin, Lost
American IdolTaylor started off the show with an underwhelming "Easy." I like his voice, but one more "whoo" might end my goodwill toward him forever. Smooth and soulful Elliott had another fantastic night. I'm not familiar with the jazzy tune he performed, but he handled the offbeat tempo and phrasing effortlessly
I agreed with Simon Cowell about Ace's singing. He looks the part and you can just see the judges counting his eventual ticket and CD sales in their heads, but tonight he was way off; dull, flat and his high notes cracked like cheap china. Did ya catch Brenna practically body-slam the other girls to catch his "beanie"? Gedeon really surprised me, doing a fantastic job on a great Sam Cooke track,
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John Travolta and Tim Allen are in talks to star in Wild Hogs, a Disney comedy about middle-aged biker wannabes who, while on an open-road folly, butt heads with Hell's Angels.... The scribes behind Chicken Little are now at work on a live-action comedy, The Missing Link, which is pegged as a "monkey spy adventure in the vein of The Bourne Identity." Um, OK.
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Zach Braff of Scrubs
When Zach Braff and the gang grab their clipboards and return to their shifts at Sacred Heart Hospital for Scrubs' fifth season premiere (tonight at 9 pm/ET), fans will certainly have a lot to look forward to. Not only will the NBC comedy deliver a double dose of new episodes each week, and not only will Arrested Development's Jason Bateman put in an appearance — leaving Braff's J.D. tangled in a bunch of feathers! — but prepare for the crew to pay their respects to the yellow brick road in a Wizard of Oz-themed 100th episode, airing later this month.
With its return, Scrubs will settle in to NBC's Tuesday-night lineup at a time when most of their prime-time counterparts are well into their fall seasons. Br
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Conjuring up $101.4 million, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire enjoyed the best opening weekend performance yet for the franchise and the fourth-best three-day opening weekend ever, ranking behind Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and Shrek 2. Rounding out the weekend's Top 5 were Walk the Line (bowing with $22.4 million), Chicken Little ($14.8 mil), Derailed ($6.5 mil) and Zathura ($5.1 mil).
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Chicken Little fended off a string of newcomers — including the new Jennifer Aniston thriller, Derailed — to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second consecutive weekend. Dipping a minuscule 20 percent, Chicken grossed $32 million to bring its cumulative haul to $80.8 million. The sci-fi fantasy Zathura debuted at No. 2 with $14 million, followed by Derailed (No. 3 with $12.8 million) and 50 Cent's semiautobiographical drama Get Rich or Die Tryin' (No. 4 with $12.5 million). Overall receipts were down 15 percent from the same weekend last year.
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