Idolatry

I have two confessions to make:

1. I watched American Idol last night. All of it.
2. I only watched because of Katharine McPhee.

I realize that these confessions give me company that numbers in the millions, but I still feel a little ashamed of it. This is partly because, while I'd been aware of McPhee's cuteness for a while, I wasn't expecting to be so stunned by her. Seriously, it was a little worrying. I usually find real-life women much more attractive than TV women, but I haven't been that beauty-struck by the TV since the mid-80's, when I dreamed about about the chance circumstances that would make me the boyfriend of Allison Smith from Kate and Allie. I suppose it's possible that my McPheever was partly due to the fact that I had the TV muted the whole time, so it seemed like she was singing Phoenix's "Rally" instead of whatever corny number they had her warbling. But still: yow.

But while I was into this show for the pretty, I was actually surprised at how nice it all seemed. I only ever tuned into American Idol in the early rounds to see the deluded people who thought they were great singers, and assumed that the rest of the show was full of nasty, hair-pulling competition. But this final episode seemed very feel-good, with a lot of fun all around. Now, maybe both Katharine and Taylor have exactly the sorts of social acting skills that true stardom requires, but they both seemed genuinely glad to be there, thrilled to get as far as they had. They seemed to (again: might have been faked) have a mutual respect and admiration for each other, and I actually think they would make a pretty cute couple.

I was a little sorry to see that my imaginary girlfriend didn't get the ultimate prize, but it was really nice that it went to such an unlikely candidate. Maybe America was a little tired of perfectly-polished obvious stars like Carrie Underwood, but it was nice to see people are willing to vote for a pudgy, double-chinned grey-haired guy, especially when his competition in the competition was so freaking gorgeous. He deserved it.

So since I've made a few blush-worthy admissions here, I'm going to ask for some comments on the subject from some of the regular readers. You know who you are.