Friday The 13th

The American Idol Experience opened this week at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, FL. Like all top-notch Disney attractions, the AI building is a near-replica of the real studios in the real Hollywood. This version, however, will screen park guests through a lot faster than the real yearly auditions. Rather than wait in the thousands-of-people lines, AI hopefuls can pre-register to be one of the 400 park guests screened per day. After a private audition, Disney casting directors will choose 21 hopefuls to perform 3-at-a-time at one of 7 Idol shows staged for park guests per day. Audience members will have armchair voting pads to move their favorites on to the daily finals. The ultimate winner each day will receive a VIP spot in line for the real TV show auditions. That’s pretty efficient! At 400 people a day, times the number of days a year that the park is open … do the math. That’s thousands of hopefuls who take the first step toward their dreams without the all day wait! So if you’re a singer … and you’re ever in Florida…. Good luck.

Many of Idol’s winners and notable contestants were on hand for the blue-carpet parade and opening. Representing country music were Carrie Underwood, Bucky Covington, Josh Gracin, and Phil Stacey. (Kellie Pickler was invited, but she chose to go to New York Fashion Week instead.)

News From Around The Country
According to a report in the New York Post, songwriter D.L. Byron has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Rascal Flatts in federal court. Byron wrote the 80’s Pat Benatar hit “Shadows of the Night” and claims the trio’s “No Reins” – off their Still Feels Good album – has two very similar choruses. Flatts lawyers maintain “any such similarities between the two works are the result of coincidence and/or the use of common or trite ideas." The courts will work it out.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have donated 500-thousand dollars to a fire relief effort after thousands of homes were destroyed and 181 people were killed in Victoria, Australia. Keith and Nicole were two of more than 150 leading politicians, musicians, sports stars, and actors who took part in a Red Cross telethon. Back here in the States, look for Keith Urban singing on Sunday. He will play the Daytona 500 pre-race show this week at the 51st running of the NASCAR season-opening event. Julianne Hough will sing the National Anthem.