Ex-Idol Contestant Luke Menard is Battling Cancer

I know you remember Luke Menard from this past season on AI.  He had a wonderful smile and an amazing voice.  He was sort of quiet and didn’t get the coverage that a lot of the other contestants got.  Somehow he got lost in the shuffle of huge talents and fresh faces - even though his voice and stage presence were straight on flawless. 

Sadly, the 29 year old former American Idol contestant is battling Stage Two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system.  When he went to the doctor, Luke thought he had “walking pneumonia” but soon learned that his cough was much more serious than that.

When he was in the hospital in California (during the last weeks of the show), David Cook and Carly Smithson each visited him.

David Cook told People Magazine:

“I love Luke and I just wanted to show up and make sure that he understood that I love him and know that if there’s anything I can do for him and his wife, sign me up, you know?  Luke, Michael Johns, Jason Yeager and myself, we kind of buddy-ed up one day at Hollywood week.  We called ourselves the four horsemen. Any time one of your own is going through something as horrible as that, it makes everything else seem a little bit insignificant.

“Cancer,” Cook says, “is a very big part of my existence.  I’m excited to be put in [the spotlight] where I can hopefully do something to help other people.”

David Cook’s brother, Adam, has been waging his own war against cancer for ten years (brain cancer). 

Luke is back in his hometown now (Crawfordsville, Indiana) with his wife, family, and friends.  His cancer, Stage Two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, has a 95 percent survival rate, with treatment.  While that’s extremely encouraging, Luke still has a lot on his plate to deal with, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers (as well as Adam Cook, of course.)

You can visit Luke’s MySpace  and show him your support.  His mood?  Determined. 

Beautifulness! Rihanna Pictures from May 13

Stylishly gorgeous and gorgeously stylish Rihanna and her impossibly cute dog were out being fabuous on May 13.  The purse?  The jeans? The hoops?  The top?  The figure?  Does anyone have it more going on than this girl?

Click each picture, after the link below, to discover the answer to the above question.  (Hint:  It starts with a NO and ends with a NO.)

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It Must be a Full Moon

The music industry has gone mad.  FIrst, we had Miley Cyrus posing in a come hither type pose for a Vanity Fair cover - a pose that is decidedly inappropriate for a 15 year old.  Accusations are flying around everywhere about who’s to blame, but I’m wondering why there’s any question.  Everyone’s to blame.  Miley, the photographer, the magazine that’s printing the picture and benefiting from publicity resulting from exploiting a child, and anyone that was on the set when she was being fitted for a sheet.  They’re all to blame and I hope people will let their disgust be known by never buying the magazine again. 

It tanked it’s reputation.

Marie Osmond has taken it upon herself to point her finger at Miley’s dad, Billy Ray Cyrus.  According to People Magazine, Billy Ray wasn’t on set while those pictures were being taken and everyone close to the family says that he wouldn’t have allowed them.

Another star who’s pointing fingers and throwing out barbs is John Rich.  He stated that American Idol’s ratings were ”going down the toilet” because (in his words) the show’s scripted.  I don’t think it’s exactly scripted - but I DO know they push certain contestants down our throats. (More about David Archuleta later.)

Speaking of Paula, he weighed in on a big blunder that recently had all of us scratching our heads:

“‘American Idol’ infuriates me as an artist,” he told reporters. “They’re being fake about it. When you can’t make a cognizant comment about someone’s performance and you’re commenting on something that happened the day before, why don’t you just walk up on stage and slap them right across the face while you’re at it? As an artist, I would just flip them the bird and walk off the stage. She wasn’t even paying attention to what was going on.”

I have no idea where Paula’s head was that night, but his criticism is pretty unfair. She cares a lot about the contestants and I’ve never heard of anyone having a negative thing to say about her. All contestants, past and present, always talk about how sweet she is, how much she tries to help them, etc.

Granted, this year, the obvious propping of Archuleta and the unnecessary bashing of Jason Castro has turned even a die hard fan like me off.  In fact, if David Cook weren’t still in the race, I’d turn the show off and never turn it on again.  It was THAT uncomfortable to watch how they treated Jason.  It’s kids like him that allow the three judges to even have this show and lifestyle.  To belittle him and disrespect him like that was uncalled for. We all knew they wanted him out of the way for DA - just like they wanted Michael Johns and Carly Smithson out of his way.  Why does this show NEVER want the most talented people to be the last ones standing?!?!

 I’ve been a loyal fan of AI for years now - to the point of dropping EVERYTHING when it comes on.  I literally count the weeks until it returns when it’s on hiatus.  But this season has me thinking that next season will find me with better things to do.  I’ve grown tired of watching the show prop their favorites at superior singers’ expense.  When Simon stated that Archuleta “crushed” the competition, I spewed my Diet Dr. Pepper everywhere.  I’m not saying DA doesn’t have a really good voice - he does.   But, come on, he most certainly didn’t crush David Cook!  No way, never, nu uh.

Now the really weird news: David Archleta (a.k.a. The Chosen One) apparently has a stage father that puts all stage mothers to shame. The guy must be a real ass!

From TMZ: “Idol” sources tell TMZ Jeff has been a complete pain in the ass, interfering with the entire production. He has badgered producers, the band, vocal coaches and even other contestants. The final straw came this week, when Jeff wanted to change the lyrics to David’s first song, “Stand By Me.” Jeff insisted on adding a verse from Sean Kingston’s hit, “Beautiful Girls.” Producers sent him an e-mail telling him the lyrics could not be changed. They were beyond pissed when David sang the song with Kingston’s lyrics during the live show.

We’re told by changing the lyrics, it created problems with the song’s publisher and cost “A.I.” a lot of money.

Jeff was ordered to sit with “A.I.” lawyers on Wednesday, who told him he was “banned from being in the rooms where David was learning or rehearsing his songs.” It’s “Idol’s” position, since David is 17, he does not need a guardian — just a teacher. Jeff will be allowed to sit in the audience during the live show but he’s 86′d from anything backstage. Sources say the other contestants were fed up with Jeff and didn’t want him near them. Now they have their wish.

All in all, sources say Jeff is the stage dad from hell. BTW, he was banned on the set when David did “Star Search” a few years back.

Poor kid!  Dad needs to cool his heels before his son tells him to use them.

Amy Winehouse Backs Out of Bond

What a total, freakin’ shame that Amy Winehouse can’t somehow get it together. 

I couldn’t like her music any better if my Starbucks card depended on it and I love her  style almost as much.  The hair, the crazy makeup, she’s nothing if not entertaining. When she first apperared on the radar I thought she was an off beat, delicious breath of fresh air - air that, unfortunately, got polluted before any of us even knew what happened.

According to E Online, Amy has backed out of what would have been something that would have been amazing. Her producer, Mark Ronson, told SkyNews that she has stopped working on the new theme song for the latest 007 flick.  Her voice was MADE for a Bond soundtrack and it would have brought all of her fans to their knees.  I’m most definitely a fan of her talent, but I’m losing patience with her decisions.

Come on, girl, get it together!

Her producer, who’s patience has probably been lost in a vast wilderness far longer than mine, went on to spill more bad news.  He said Amy Winehouse is “not ready to record any music” and that it’s going to take “some miracle of science” to finish the two tracks for the upcoming Quantam of Solace.

Amy’s most recent brush with the law found her cooling her stylish heels in jail overnight after slapping a guy in a bar.  Wow…. a guy got slapped in a bar, who’d have thought?   And she’s, what, probably about 90 pounds wet?    Wow, he must’ve seen his life flash before his eyes.

I know, I know… She has problems.  But, frankly it doesn’t seem to me like anyone’s helping her any.  Flippin’ shame about the Bond soundtrack.