There’s been a lot of ink spilled about Ellen DeGeneres’ American Idol debut tonight, where, as part of the Hollywood Week proceedings, she’ll take over the Chair Formerly Occupied by America’s Wackiest Twitterer. Admittedly, I was resistant to the idea of Ellen as Idol judge when the news was first announced back in September, but a lot of my opinion was based on her painful guest-judging stint on So You Think You Can Dance last summer. Since then, the comedian/talk-show host has repeatedly stated that she’ll take her Idol role more seriously. In fact, here’s what she had to say about criticism of her SYTYCD performance in an EW cover story last month written by my colleague Dave ‘Oscar Watch’ Karger:
“I just wanted to go see the show, and suddenly I was asked if I want to be a judge. And I’m like, ‘Well, those are better seats — I’ll be a judge.’ I just thought it would be interesting, and then I thought, ‘Oh, I have to actually critique them.’ I don’t know anything about dance, so I just really did focus on making it funny. But it’s a totally different thing [from] singing. And I will be funny [on Idol] — if something’s obnoxious or stupid and there’s a joke to be made, that’s what I do first and foremost. But I’ll have more to say about a singer — with singing, it’ll be funny, but there will also be true, honest critiquing.”
So maybe there’s reason to be a little hopeful about Ellen on Idol. Because while she might not have the music-industry background of Kara or Randy, she does have two things in common with Simon that Table Banger and One-Zillion Percent do not: (Read full post)
Zach Galifianakis is set to host SNL on March 6, according to 
Steve Jobs, in his typical black turtleneck and jeans, took the stage in San Francisco today to a standing ovation from the Apple faithful. He promised to unveil some “truly magical products,” and he did: the iPad, Apple’s long-awaited tablet computer.
