Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Editor’s Note: Check out the new photo gallery at the bottom of this blog

Three of the eliminations on American Idol made perfect sense Thursday night.

* Haeley Vaughn: Sweet, sweet girl. Great, great smile. In miles over her head in this competition. I blame the judges for letting her make it past Hollywood. Had she made it past last night, she might have been the worst singer to ever come so close to the finals.

* Jermaine Sellers: The fact that he seemed so impressed with his own talent might have turned voters off. And, like I said in the live blog, his MySpace is so filled with finger-pointing and blaming others for what’s gone wrong in his career, I can’t wait to see what he eventually says about the Idol process. So, think he and Simon will really go to church together one day? In onesies, perhaps?

* John Park: Whatever spark Shania Twain saw in the auditions was gone by the time he reached the semifinals. The only contestants with two weaker performances — male or female — were Haeley and Todrick Hall, who someone avoided the ax again.

But then there’s Michelle Delamor. OK, her version of Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open” was a bit cringe-worthy from a vocal standout. But she took a risk.

And she surely didn’t sound any worse that Paige Miles trying to pull off what turned out to be a poor, poor imitation of Kelly Clarkson. Or Didi Benami when she squeezed every bit of life out of “Lean on Me.” Or Lacey Brown, when she tried the more upbeat “Kiss Me,” but didn’t come close to pulling it off.

I think I’ll call her lucky Lacey from this point on.

Check back tomorrow, early evening EST, when I’ll be posting blogs on each of the eliminated contestants. Yes, the day after being eliminated, the contestants get to answer questions from the media. Lucky them, right?

Meanwhile, my revised forecast, prediction, or whatever you want to call it, for the finals.

The Ladies

Sure things:

Crystal Bowersox (Wow!)
Lilly Scott (Nearly as big a wow)
Katelyn Epperly (call her the dark horse)
Siobhan Magnus (because mediocre performances are enough to make you a sure thing this year).

Likely others:

Didi Benami (maybe people are still voting because of “Terrified”)
Katie Stevens (young, vibrant, very likeable and two decent performances)

Unlikely to make it:

Paige Miles (hasn’t impressed me yet)
Lacey Brown (three strikes, and you sure should be out)

The guys

Sure things:

Lee DeWyze (most impressive and consistent so far)
Michael Lynche (hit his stride this week and shouldn’t look back)
Aaron Kelly (he’ll draw the young female vote)
Casey James (if you’re going to rock, rock)
Andrew Garcia (needs to rediscover that Hollywood magic)

The rest:

Tim Urban (the best singer of this group)
Alex Lambert (who’s still battling his nerves)
Todrick Hall (who needs to go back to Texas and clean up his Oz mess — the sooner, the better.)