TVSquad

I'm not a giant fan of guest judges on American Idol. I don't mind when musicians come in during the later rounds to mentor the contestants, but guest judges during auditions just kind of throw off the dynamic of the judging. However, recent judges like Kristen Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris are awesome enough that I totally don't mind them showing up. Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry? Well, that's an entirely different story.

FOX has announced that the "I Kissed a Girl" singer will be guest-judging the final two days of the Los Angeles auditions along with Lavigne, who from what I remember from 2003, is an angry Canadian. If I was asked to think of two people that I would enjoy watching less, I would be hard-pressed to come up with anyone. Wait, okay. Heidi and Spencer Pratt would be worse, but that's just a given, right?

How do you pump up the viewership for a music award show on a network that used to be all about music but lately has been all about reality TV and nasty scandals? Well, apparently MTV has decided to go retro and keep it funny. To promote the upcoming 2009 Video Awards, MTV has created a West Side Story parody, not too different from the brilliant solo turn by Neil Patrick Harris at last June's Tony Awards.

The commercial is a mixed bag. Taylor Swift proves that she has the real goods as a singer, doing the toughest part of the "Tonight" quintet. Ne-Yo's dance turn is more of a salute to Michael Jackson than an homage to composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. And Katy Perry's rooftop bit reinforces the fact that she's funny and playful.

As you might expect, most of the questions for Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly and chairman Peter Rice this morning were Idol -centric. Here are the salient points:

According to Rice, Paula Abdul was the only member of Idol whose contract was up. They were talking to her about it for months, and they very much wanted her to return. In past few weeks, "negotiations came to conclusion, as Rice put it. "We made a fair offer with a substantial raise. Paula decided not to return. It was not our choice. We wanted her to return to the show."

They are most likely looking to keep the number of judges at four, but Rice feels they have between now and January's live shows to find a judge. "We're looking to bring different element and energy to the season." There will be guest judges during the audition process, including Victoria Beckham and Katy Perry. Rice and Reilly wouldn't announce who else, but they said that these would be mostly female singers, artists, and performers.

More from the exec session coming up.

It's getting down to the wire, and all three of the remaining contestants are certainly talented enough to be crowned the next American Idol. While I've been an Adam Lambert fan all along, I'd be fine with whomever wins this season.

Things start off tonight with the Ford commercial, kind of a fun little cartoon-oriented ad with Adam, Danny and Kris singing "Break My Stride." It must be really fun to see yourself as a cartoon/comic book character.

There's a difference between cheap, tawdry publicity stunts that are (pop) culturally significant and those that are just, well, cheap and tawdry. An example of the former is Madonna's infamous VMA performance from 2003 in which she performed and locked lips with not only Christina Aguilera, but Britney Spears as well. An example of the latter would be basically anything involving Katy Perry.

if you've walked past a TV, into a retail store or gotten into a car this summer, chances are you've heard Katy Perry's single, "I Kissed a Girl." There's an even bigger chance that if you just read that sentence, "I Kissed a Girl" is now going to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Perry is performing that song during this year's VMA telecast on September 7th, and if you haven't already guessed, she's looking for a girl to kiss.