TVSquad

BET is tagging this event as "the hottest ticket on television." And from this list of performers, I can see why. Usher, Lil Wayne, Nelly, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, Kanye West, and Young Jeezy will take the stage at the BET Awards '08. The award show will be hosted by The Original Kings of Comedy member, D.L. Hughley.

The network is honoring some iconic names in music as well. Legendary R&B crooner Al Green will receive BET's Lifetime Achievement Award. Celebrated producer / arranger / composer Quincy Jones is set for BET's Humanitarian Award for his work in the Listen Up, a charity which connects youth with music, technology and culture.

Welcome back to "AI Aftermath," where we explore Idol's past. Each week, as one more American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated in the same week. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their eliminations. In honor of Kristy Lee Cook's elimination last week we'll be looking at other seventh place finishers.

This week: 7th place finishers, featuring featuring Ryan Starr (Season One), Kimberly Caldwell (Season Two), Jennifer Hudson (Season Three), Anwar Robinson (Season Four), Ace Young (Season Five) and Sanjaya Malakar (Season Six).

About two weeks ago, I gave you the first crop of Sex and the City movie spoilers. These spoilers didn't tell us much about the four girls but gave us a glimpse at the role Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson would play. Now that shooting is underway, reporters, paparazzi and fans are doing their best to catch a glimpse of the actors at work and bring us news from the set. This week they delivered!

The on-set picture on the right shows that the ladies will be as fashionable as they were in the series. But that's not what you really want to know, right? You want to know if the ladies are still with their men?

Spoilers warning!

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today: on TV Squad Daily:

• A broken heel, a hurtful monologue by Sarah Silverman, last-minute cancellation of a fancy magic trick... these things were out of Britney's control at the VMA's. But she could have worn a shirt.
  
• Jennifer Hudson just accepted a role in the new Sex and the City movie
  
• Rosie O'Donnell's latest advice for Barbara Walters: it's time to retire.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

Even though I never was much a fan of Sex and the City (I watched a few episodes here and there including the finale), I know how much the series meant to many TV fans and that a lot of people are looking forward to the movie. Richard reported about a month ago that Mr. Big would appear in the movie alongside the four ladies but, other than that, not much had been leaked about the movie.

Since the announcement that SatC was heading to the big screen was made, I've been poking my spoilers sources for gossip about the movie. Today, they delivered.

Spoilers ahead!

What exactly is 'Chris Daughtry-itis?' Does it involve a fever and a rash? Does it cause baldness? And most importantly, is it curable?

Simon Cowell complained in this week's Entertainment Weekly that the current batch of finalists just don't want to win badly enough. And this laid-back attitude is effecting their "A Game," or creating a lack thereof.

Simon said, "I think that we suffer from Jennifer Hudson- and Chris Daughtry-itis, which is people who didn't win getting great careers and now a lot of the contestants believing it absolutely doesn't matter."

Maybe you or someone you know is going through a midlife crisis. In the Dave Matthews song Ants Marching, he describes the monotony of daily routine. Even us bloggers feel like throwing our keyboards into the Pacific Ocean, find a job tending bar along the coast and take lunch breaks snorkeling with the fishes.

It never occurred to me that even multi-platinum selling artists might tire of their day jobs. Could this be the case with Dave Matthews? Maybe boredom with his multi-million dollar touring business motivated his television acting debut on last night's episode of House. Forget the fact that he has his own traveling caterer that beats any Craft services table, I can understand him seeking refuge from his music circus for the calmer realm of television acting.

It seems that Extra has done the leg work and taken heed to Jennifer Hudson's suggestion that someone rewind the American Idol tapes, to see all the nasty comments that Simon Cowell had said during her tenure on the show.

So a diligent production assistant in Los Angeles, had collected some footage that seems to show the more supportive side of Simon in this TV's Top 5! moment.

(S06E14) After last week's boring first impression, the guys needed to step it up this week and show us something big. Did they succeed?

Well, overall the guys were definitely better this week, but nobody even came close to Lakisha's show-stopping performance last Wednesday. In my mind, the ladies remain ahead, and this is still their race. However, at least the guys picked better songs, and showed a little personality tonight.

So who's going home?

Lets rewind back nearly four years ago when Simon Cowell was Jennifer Hudson's maker.

She endured a plethora of disparaging comments from the Idol judge, as he had the audacity to say on live TV that she looked a girl in turkey wrapping, when not dressed to his liking. Cowell often made vocal his feelings that she was way out of her league competing on Idol.

Obviously he was less concerned with her bona fide talents and more concerned with pandering to his American Idol audience. It's a funny thing about talent, if you've really got it, you will be able to persevere over all the BS the world throws at you. Even after landing her roll in Dreamgirls, this former Idol contestant could not catch a break from Cowell, and she was not afraid to show open disdain for the Idol judge.

Until last night...

ABC really needs to stage an intervention with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It really does. Because, year in and year out, the Academy puts on an Oscars ceremony that not only runs far longer than the network intends, it just ends up boring the crap out of viewers, many of whom are asleep by the time the real categories are decided.

This year's ceremony ran from 8:30 PM ET (after a Road to the Oscars red-carpet special that was just pointless and dull) to about 12:15 AM. That's 3 hours and 45 minutes of speeches, montages, and musical numbers. My god; even the Grammys aren't that bloated, and it's nothing but musical numbers.

Apparently Jennifer Hudson hasn't been reading her own press. She seemed truly stunned tonight when her name was announced for Best Supporting Actress during the 79th Annual Academy Awards (even though she was the favorite!).

When the former Idol contestant took the stage, she took a moment to take it all in and that moment seemed to make her tear up a bit. She thanked her grandmother, her large family, cast and crew of DreamGirls and God got a few shout-outs. The music nearly drowned out her quick 'thank you' to Jennifer Holliday, the actress who originated the role of Effie on Broadway. She did not thank anyone from American Idol.

I think she just one-upped Kelly Clarkson!

We've already seen Survivor and Big Brother go the all-star route. And The Amazing Race is getting set to kick off their own version. Heck, it seems like every time I click by MTV there is another show filled with past Road Rules and Real World cast members. So why not American Idol?

According to TV Guide, Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe is trying to sell Fox on the concept. It's part of the planned songwriting competition. Lythgoe's idea is to narrow those entries down to ten songs and then bring in ten former Idol contestants to sing the songs on the show.

I'm not an Idol fan, but I have to say, that's a solid idea. I'm guessing they won't be able to get Kelly Clarkson, and chances are Jennifer Hudson won't be involved. But assuming that they can manage to get ten of the more popular contestants, this should make for another huge week of ratings. And an American Idol All-Stars CD... And an American Idol All-Stars Special Edition DVD... And... good grief, Idol is just a machine. At this point it's rivaled only by the power of Harry Potter.

Several past Idol finalists (including Jennifer Hudson) have complained about the treatment they received during their American Idol experience. But don't count Season Five's Bucky Covington as a member of the "Sour Grapes Club." In a recent interview, Bucky talks positively about his own experience.

And unlike the others, he seems to get it: your Idol experience doesn't guarantee you superstardom. However, it does give you tons of exposure in front of millions of potential fans. And it is what you make of it.

Before Jennifer Hudson announced her hate of American Idol, Simon Cowell told Entertainment Tonight that he was one of her "main supporters" when she began on Idol. And while he may have been harsh to her at times, Simon feels he was equally nice, as well.

And he's happy to take full credit for Hudson's amazing success, stating, "If it hadn't have been for Idol, she wouldn't have been picked to do Dreamgirls."