I left the “Separated at Birth” entry up all weekend on purpose since it was so much fun. Two more Luke comparisons: Bryan Cranston of “Malcolm in the Middle” and Hugh Jackman. But alas, let us move on:

Paula Abdul did a phone press conference last Thursday I forgot to check in on. I just listened to the replay. Ultimately, I didn’t miss much. She defended Carly Smithson, saying she was unknown so who cares about her past record deal? She was promoting her video for her new song “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow.” She complimented David A, Syesha, Jason Castro, Ramiele, Michael, Amanda, Alaina and Carly and as we know, it’s too early to pinpoint a likely winner.

Carrie performed “All American Girl” and “Flat on the Floor” (presumably her third single off her current CD) on “Saturday Night Live,” the first new episode since November 3, pre-strike.

Thank you, MJ, for this one of her doing “All American Girl.”

I loved that kid Kyle Ensley, the future politician. He loves to sing but he’s one of the few that has no desire to try to make it a career. He was cut for Colton Berry, the eliminated Ellen DeGeneres lookalike. So ironically, Kyle landed on Ellen last week:

I agree with Simon that Kyle deserved to stick around for pure entertainment value, but he might have ended up being the Chicken Little//John Stevens of the crew and deprive someone else a spot in the top six guys.

An Irish online betting site Paddy Power has already placed bets on the top 20. I’m sure Chris Sligh at this point was considered a front runner at this stage a year ago. At the moment, the favorites are David Archuleta (5-2), Michael Johns (11-4), Ramiele Malubay (5-1), Syesha Mercado (6-1), Jason Castro and Carly Smithson (8-1) and Asia’h Epperson (10-1). Odds are fairly good all seven will be in the final 12. The bottom three at 50-1 are David Hernandez, Luke Menard and Chikezie Eze.

Gone Country episode No. 5 featured a it more of Bobby Brown’s sleepwalking and he has an unfortunate habit of missing the bathroom when he needs to urinate. Poor Maureen McCormick accidentally steps in it. She also accidentally sees a bit more of Bobby than she would have liked and well, let’s just say he has big hands and feet, ahem. I never thought this show would go this direction*! Less memorably, the team learns line dancing, get some country clothing and work on their songs (though we still hear very little and Julio Iglesias Jr. has zip). Diana gets relatively little airtime on this one though she picks out a tight blue dress.