TVSquad

(S06E29) They certainly did cram in a lot of stuff in tonight's episode, didn't they? Wow, my head is still spinning. As much as I complain about the hour-long results show giving us way too much unnecessary filler, I felt they did their best tonight to at least keep the show entertaining. And I appreciate that, even though it may have been a bit too much.

Besides, don't they know all we really want is the RESULTS. Enough with the tease. Let us have it! How many of you skipped the festivities, TiVo'd the thing, and then fast forwarded to the very end?

Me, I watched the whole thing. Of course, I had to. It's my job. But whether you watched it all, or zipped to the end, the results were the same. Someone went home tonight -- and it wasn't Sanjaya.

Gwen Stefani will be coaching Idol's Top 10 finalists for next week's "pop-themed" performances. The Hollaback Girl will also sing "The Sweet Escape" with Akon on Wednesday's live results show.

A "pop-themed" week seems to be a fairly broad catergory, so it will be interesting to see what songs the contestants choose. Reportedly, they will be singing their "favorite songs from that genre." I wonder if this means they will sing pop tunes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, or go with something more contemporary. As always, it is important that they select their songs wisely, and give memorable performances.

The Top 10 perform live on Tuesday, March 27 (8:00-9:07 PM ET). Please note that American Idol is extending the episode by seven minutes in order to squeeze in all of the performances. House will follow Idol in its entirety. Set your TIVOs accordingly.

(S32E08) I must preface this post by saying that I know virtually nothing about Annette Bening. She is married to Warren Beatty, she was in American Beauty, and... that's about it. So, if this episode was packed with Bening film references and I failed to catch them, I apologize.

Bening had a really strong performance. All her characters were totally solid and natural (I mean, as natural as they could be). However, she had a really tough time with the cue cards. It wasn't like her eyes darted from side to side... she just full-on stared at the cue cards most of the time. That always annoys me a little bit about hosts, but perhaps it's just a personal annoyance and not particularly fair towards Bening. After all, it's not like something a film star should be used to, right?

The writing was very funny at some points, but the rest of the episode was only "okay". Hey, they can't all be winners.