A group of students from the Poconos will be sharing the stage with a singing sensation this weekend. American Idol runner-up David Archuleta will be performing with members of the Stroudsburg High School Chamber Orchestra at the Sherman Theater this Sunday. The 24 member orchestra is busy fine-tuning its performance skills, practicing for the big performance. The young musicians said they're excited.

"I couldn't believe it. I was like, wait, what? You're not kidding? You're serious? He's coming here!," said Senior Cynthia Mathiesen. "I was like, what! It's so cool! I told my mom and she started freaking out too," said Iris Rosario, a senior. He's taking the stage at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg as part of his Christmas Tour. While in town he needed some musical back-up and turned to Stroudsburg High School.

"Stroudsburg is the only string program in Monroe County. I've been saying that for years and years and years. We have a diamond here and a lot of people don't know it. I'm thinking maybe Mr. Archuleta got word of that and why he called us," said Orchestra Director Lisa Rogers. Soon after the call, Rogers received the Christmas music in an e-mail and practice started immediately. "I'm really excited. It's one thing I can check off my list of things to do in life," said Mathiesen.

The Stroudsburg High School Chamber Orchestra will be performing right on stage with David Archuleta on Sunday night. Earlier in the day, orchestra members will be practicing with the American Idol runner-up and that's when a lot of the students hope they'll get their big chance to meet the star.

Mathiesen said if she meets him she'll say hello and tell him it's nice to meet him. "I hope we meet him and get free tickets so my mom can come," said Gigi Elsayed. "This is a great opportunity for the kids and I told them it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. So make the most of it," said Rogers.

The Stroudsburg High School Chamber Orchestra will be performing with David Archuleta at the Sherman Theater in Downtown Stroudsburg on December 4 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30.00.

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Fox announced a midseason lineup with this interesting asterisk firmly attached to "American Idol." A "special edition" of TV's still-biggest-after-all-these-years show will air Jan. 22 at 10 p.m., after the end of the NFC Championship Game, and -- yes -- ensuring an even bigger number. The show, meanwhile, bows the week before, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. and will air Wednesdays and Thursdays

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Last night, the Eisner and Lubin Auditorium was filled with Asian American pride and talent in honor of the Asian Cultural Union's 40th anniversary. The event, popularly known as Asian American Idol, attracted more than 100 attendees. This year's organizers opted for a more polished and performance-driven event, instead of the usual on-the-spot, karaoke-style performances that took place in prior years.

Contestants auditioned on Monday and were notified on Tuesday if they would get the chance to compete among the final eight contestants. "We decided that we wanted to turn AAI into a bigger event this year and the highlight of the celebration of our 40-year anniversary," CAS junior and ACU co-president Sidrah Syed said. "There was no better way to do that than to turn it into a fully fledged show requiring auditions in order to participate."

This year's judges included Nickelodeon actress and College of Nursing freshman Ashley Argota, Tisch vocal instructor Carolyn Paulus and NYU President John Sexton. "NYU students are amazingly talented," Sexton said. "I see it all the time in class, but to see them performing just because they're passionate about it is very special."

A group of ACU freshmen kicked off the show with a performance of Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass."
The competition continued with a performance by the 2010 AAI winner, Gallatin junior Justin Kim. He performed a mashup of "Wedding Dress" by Taeyang, "Grenade" by Bruno Mars and "Fall for You" by Secondhand Serenade, which Paulus praised for its "change in tempo" and Kim's "emotional attachment to the song."

"I first sang for a crowd at Asian American Idol last year, and through this event I was able to find a new passion in singing for people," Kim said. Steinhardt sophomore Veronica Choi ended the show with her rendition of "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles, and Argota praised the quality of her voice.

Guest performers included the Synchronic Dance Crew, NYU VoCollision and a surprise act by Argota herself, who performed Adele's "Someone Like You."After finalizing the decisions, the judges announced the winners of the competition — Veronica Choi won first place, Justin Kim earned second and Milton Koh earned third. All three walked away with gift cards to various stores, including Superdry, H&M, Uniqlo and Max Brenner's.

Steinhardt sophomore Travis Tan said he enjoyed each of the performances immensely.
"I thought the event showcased the talent of the Asian community at NYU in a different way," Tan said.

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A New Jersey man who admitted driving drunk won’t face manslaughter charges in the hit-and-run death of an “American Idol” hopeful. Daniel Bark, of Toms River, accepted a plea deal and confessed to consuming about six beers at the Bamboo nightclub in Seaside Heights on July 25, 2009, before getting into his car and driving home.

The 25-year-old also admitted to ignoring police orders and swerving away from two cops on bicycles in a blind panic, nearly hitting them, because he was worried about the alcohol in his system and the marijuana pipe in his vehicle.

In a hearing before Superior Court Judge Wendel Daniels, Bark conceded that he drove through several stop signs and the wrong way down a one-way street in a failed attempt to escape police. Cops eventually caught up with Bark on Route 37 where he refused a blood-alcohol test. He was brought to a police station for questioning and interrogated about the hit-and-run death of “American Idol” wannabe Alexis Cohen, 25, who was found dead on a Seaside Heights roadside the same night.

Bark’s lawyer said his client was coerced into confessing, and the statement was deemed inadmissable by Justice Daniels in March. Daniels found that Bark had not been read his rights as required by law.

“As we’ve said all along, there has never been any proof that he did do it,” attorney Michael Nolan Jr. told the Asbury Park Press. “The sad part is, this girl was killed, and whoever killed that girl is still driving around out there.”Cohen, of Allentown, Pa., auditioned on the seventh and eighth seasons of “American Idol” and was best-known for her angry rant after the judges rejected her.

Bark spent 20 months in jail before he was able to post bail in March. He will be sentenced to 364 days in the Ocean County Jail on Jan. 27 and probation but will face no additional time behind bars because of the time he already served.

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"American Idol" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says don't expect any major changes when the hit Fox TV show returns in January after undergoing an extensive makeover last season.

Lythgoe, who helped transform Britain's "Pop Idol" into the American TV juggernaut in 2002, returned as executive producer last season to usher in the post-Simon Cowell era. That ended a two-year hiatus that allowed him to focus on "So You Think You Can Dance," which he produces and helps judge.

For the 10th "American Idol" season, Lythgoe introduced new judges, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, to join holdover Randy Jackson. Veteran music producer Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, was brought in as an in-house mentor for the contestants. All of them are back for Season 11, Lythgoe said.

"I think we made a lot of tweaks last year," Lythgoe said. "I'm not sure that we want to make too many more tweaks this year."Lythgoe said the most significant change introduced last year had nothing to do with the judges: It was a decision to avoid those fish-out-of-water moments that forced very talented singers to sing in styles that didn't suit them.

"The biggest change we made last year was to say, 'OK, if you're a country singer you can sing any of these genres in your country style,' " Lythgoe said. "'We're not going to force you to do rock or anything you can't do. You can take a Michael Jackson song and turn it country.'"

That resulted in singers such as Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart advancing much deeper into the competition than they might have in previous years. The two teenage finalists, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, were country singers.

McCreery, the first pure country "Idol" winner since Carrie Underwood in 2005, saw his October release, "Clear As Day," make him the first country act to debut at No. 1 with its first studio album on the Billboard 200 chart.

And at 18, he became the youngest man to open at the top of the chart with his debut release. He also was the first "Idol" winner to start his post-"Idol" career with a No. 1 album since Ruben Studdard in 2003.

Lythgoe said last year the show found "some incredible talent, and it was so diverse.""We got this great jazz singer in Casey, we got a soft jazz singer in Haley, and the two country kids (in the finals) probably in previous years wouldn't have been as successful because they would have been asked to sing in the different styles that we used to do then," he said last week.

Lythgoe expects similar results in Season 11. "The kids that have auditioned this year that we're going to be taking to Hollywood in December are again really talented and really diverse," he said. "Hopefully they'll get through one of the toughest auditions, which is the Hollywood week, and get themselves into the top 20."

Lythgoe said he believes "Idol" should be "totally about the talent" and the recent changes foster that. "For me," he said, "it's really showing the talent that is here and not trying to take somebody who's talented, beat them around the bucket and turn them out."

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“American Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says don’t expect any major changes when the hit Fox TV show returns in January. Lythgoe returned as “Idol’s” executive producer last season to usher in the post-Simon Cowell era with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and a new mentor for contestants, veteran music producer Jimmy Iovine. He says all of them are back for the new season.
 
Lythgoe says he’s “not sure” the show wants to make too many more tweaks this year. Lythgoe says the most significant change introduced last year was to allow the contestants to sing in their own styles. He says that opened the door for last season’s winner, teenage country singer Scotty McCreery.

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"American Idol" alum Lauren Alaina didn't exactly end Thanksgiving on a high note. Just after season 10 winner Scotty McCreery was caught lip syncing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the 17-year-old runner up made a flub of her own when she forgot the words to the "Star Spangled Banner" before a nationally televised football game.

The singer kicked off Thursday's showdown between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions performing the national anthem, only to have a memory slip 30 seconds into the song. The "Idol" star made it to the line, "what so proudly we hailed," before blanking on the words and falling silent. After the painful pause, she picked up again with "whose broad stripes and bright stars," and finished off the performance with a smile.
 
It didn't take long for Lauren Alaina to become a trending topic on Twitter. The singer took to the social networking site to explain the mess-up. "I'm not a robot," she tweeted. "I have no excuses. I messed up. You know, what can you do? At least I didn't fall down again.""Thank you everyone for the kind words," she added. "But the truth is I messed up. I'm gonna spend the rest of the day being thankful for all my blessings."

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"American Idol" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says don't expect any major changes when the hit Fox TV show returns in January after undergoing an extensive makeover last season. Lythgoe, who helped transform Britain's "Pop Idol" into the American TV juggernaut in 2002, returned as executive producer last season to usher in the post-Simon Cowell era. That ended a two-year hiatus that allowed him to focus on "So You Think You Can Dance," which he produces and helps judge.

For the 10th "American Idol" season, Lythgoe introduced new judges, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, to join holdover Randy Jackson. Veteran music producer Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, was brought in as an in-house mentor for the contestants. All of them are back for Season 11, Lythgoe said.

"I think we made a lot of tweaks last year," Lythgoe said. "I'm not sure that we want to make too many more tweaks this year."Lythgoe said the most significant change introduced last year had nothing to do with the judges: It was a decision to avoid those fish-out-of-water moments that forced very talented singers to sing in styles that didn't suit them.

"The biggest change we made last year was to say, 'OK, if you're a country singer you can sing any of these genres in your country style,'" Lythgoe said. "'We're not going to force you to do rock or anything you can't do. You can take a Michael Jackson song and turn it country.'"That resulted in singers such as Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart advancing much deeper into the competition than they might have in previous years. The two teenage finalists, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, were country singers.

McCreery, the first pure country "Idol" winner since Carrie Underwood in 2005, saw his October release, "Clear As Day," make him the first country act to debut at No. 1 with its first studio album on the Billboard 200 chart. And at 18, he became the youngest man to open at the top of the chart with his debut release. He also was the first "Idol" winner to start his post-"Idol" career with a No. 1 album since Ruben Studdard in 2003.

Lythgoe said last year the show found "some incredible talent, and it was so diverse.""We got this great jazz singer in Casey, we got a soft jazz singer in Haley, and the two country kids (in the finals) probably in previous years wouldn't have been as successful because they would have been asked to sing in the different styles that we used to do then," he said last week. Lythgoe expects similar results in Season 11.

"The kids that have auditioned this year that we're going to be taking to Hollywood in December are again really talented and really diverse," he said. "Hopefully they'll get through one of the toughest auditions, which is the Hollywood week, and get themselves into the top 20."Lythgoe said he believes "Idol" should be "totally about the talent" and the recent changes foster that. "For me," he said, "it's really showing the talent that is here and not trying to take somebody who's talented, beat them around the bucket and turn them out."

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American Idol judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson recently took part in a Season 11 photocast with host Ryan Seacrest. Ahead of a special broadcast of American Idol on Sunday, January 22 immediately following the NFC championship game on Fox, the Idol judges posed for a new photo shoot in Los Angeles where Lopez, Tyler, Jackson and Seacrest hung out together for the day.

The the new American Idol Season 11 photo shoot, Jennifer Lopez clowns around with Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler as Randy Jackson kids with Ryan Seacrest. Also in the new Idol photocast, the judges meet with fans and lead them around the streets as everyone gets hyped for Season 11. The American Idol photocast also gives fans a look at the judges in various fashions much like last year's visuals.

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Sometimes it's pleasant when my reality TV worlds collide. Sometimes it's scary. Scenario No. 2 happened Monday night, when former "American Idol" contestant Ace Young appeared on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Was he dating a Housewife? Performing at an elite nightclub? No. He sang at a birthday party for Taylor Armstrong's 5-year-old daughter. He wrote a special song for the occasion. It was slightly strange that he was holding a beverage during the performance, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was non-alcoholic. Anyway, the appearance made me do some catch-up research on Ace. Remember, he placed seventh on the fifth season of "Idol" -- the one that Taylor Hicks won. Click here for his Wikipedia page. I'll leave you with this:

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