Fan Fare

Steven Tyler — “American Idol’s” new Paula Abdul?

Okay. So he’s no Simon Cowell. But based on his first outing on the “American Idol” judging panel,  Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler had the wackiness and unpredictability of  the much-loved, and much-missed Paula Abdul.

With Jennifer Lopez breaking her heart over saying no to some of the wannabe pop stars, it was left to Tyler, 62,  to inject much of the fun into the new line-up.

Whooping, clapping, hollering, and flirting with the contestants, the heavily made-up rocker also had the best of the jokes and one-liners — sometimes against himself.

“We are all here, because we’re not all there!” quipped Tyler — who has been in and out of rehab for addictions to everything from cocaine, to alcohol, to painkiller and sleep medication in his colorful 40-year stint with Aerosmith.

And even given producers’ obvious switch of emphasis to show more “good” contenders than laughable train wrecks,  it was Tyler who was quickest with the put-downs. “You scared everbody in the room,” he told the unfortunate Boy Scout who sang “My Way”.

“Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a child?” he asked another contestant.

Tyler’s sometimes foul language earned just a couple of bleeps on Wednesday, but looks likely to bring a sense of danger to the show when episodes go live in a few weeks time.

Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez — right fit for “American Idol”?

“American Idol” has finally announced its new judging panel, ending months of speculation about the future shape of the show.

But are  Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and actress/singer Jennifer Lopez  the right choice? And will star power be enough to keep old “Idol” fans (and hopefully millions more new ones) tuning in when the show returns in January?

Tyler, the volatile lead singer of America’s best-selling rock band, will certainly bring a rock edge to a contest that has specialised in producing middle-of the-road champions for an audience that ranges from 8 to 80 year-olds.

And J.Lo, as America’s leading Latina entertainer, may entice a whole new Hispanic audience to the show. (And as for her  reported “diva” demands that made the rounds a few weeks ago –  “so much rubbish”,  executive producer Nigel Lythgoe told journalists this week.)

It’s certainly a huge change of style for “American Idol” as it enters its 10th season. But will J.Lo, Tyler and returning judge Randy Jackson produce the kind of chemistry as a three-some that made the Randy-Paula-Simon combo so entertaining a few years ago?

“We have spent a lot of time together now.  We all have known each other for a while.  So I think we are gonna have a lot of cool camaraderie,”  Jackson told a news conference as the new judges were officially confirmed.

Neither Tyler or J.Lo were on anyone’s radar back in May when Simon Cowell left, and celebrities like Bret Michaels, Shania Twain, Elton John and shock jock Howard Stern were either lobbying hard for the job, or widely reported to be in talks about joining the panel.

Is Steven Tyler right fit for “American Idol”?

Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler looks to be on his way to join “American Idol” in what would be the first bona fide rock star judge on the show’s panel.

But is Tyler, 62, the right fit for a show aimed squarely at middle America? And if Tyler is in place, as widely reported, can the “Idol” judging panel carry a second major artist if rumors about country star Shania Twain, or Jennifer Lopez, or even Jessica Simpson turn out to be correct?

Tyler may be a rock god, but does he have anything useful, or witty, or coherent, to say to the aspiring “American Idols”?

And rock stars usually bring plenty of baggage after decades on the road — in Tyler’s case a history of prescription drug addiction,  drama, and an uncanny ability to fall off the stage.

How long would Tyler sign up to be on “Idol”? And would his new job mean another long hiatus (or even  the end) of touring and new albums for Aerosmith?

One thing is clear. Paula Abdul he is not. Nor Ellen. And if there’s one person who can withstand all the expected negative comparisons to Simon Cowell, it’s probably Tyler.

Tyler may be ready for “American Idol” but is America ready for Steven Tyler on prime-time TV twice a week for five months?

Shania Twain for “American Idol”? Judge auditions drag on

Another day.  Another potential “American Idol” judge surfaces.

Who knew Simon Cowell (or even Ellen DeGeneres) would be so hard to replace?

With Jennifer Lopez apparently out of the running for being “too demanding”, country singer Shania Twain’s name resurfaced on Thursday as  “Idol”  producers and the Fox television network searched for a new line-up in time for filmed auditions in mid-September for the show’s 10th season.

Twain proved an audience favorite after appearing earlier this year on the show, both as a guest judge and a celebrity mentor.  The idea of Lopez, on the other hand, had not gone down so well with fans online, making you wonder whether her name had been deliberately floated by “Idol” insiders to gauge popular reaction before any deals were signed.

Canadian country singer Twain, however, may have ruled herself out because of a planned TV show of her own on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) starting in 2011.  OWN said on Thursday it was still moving ahead with the show but did not yet have an air date.

What does seem to be emerging after the long months of  musical chairs is that “Idol”  looks headed to return to a three-judge format, probably  anchored by Randy Jackson and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. And reading between the headlines, one can see that the magic ingredient — chemistry — is playing a key role in the drawn out selection procedure.

It’s hard to see how Twain, or Tyler, who still has a performing, recording and touring career with Aerosmith,  will be able to fit in a five months, twice a week, commitment to “American Idol” over the long-term. And the same can be said of J.Lo who has a music career, a movie career, and twins to keep her busy.

Goodbye Ellen, Hello….who? to “American Idol”

Like it or not  “American Idol” will be getting a whole new talent line-up next season — and that’s just the judges.

But with Fox keeping their mouths firmly shut on who will replace Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres, it seems to be anyone’s guess as to what the new panel will look like, or even how many judges there will be.

Fox’s senior executives have refused to confirm or deny any of the rumors of recent weeks that have suggested that Jennifer Lopez, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, Jessica Simpson or even Justin Timberlake might be joining the show.

And they also refused to speculate on whether Kara DioGuardi or even Randy Jackson will return.

Even more tantalizing, Fox entertainment chairman Peter Rice said that some of the recent reports were accurate while other were “wildly inaccurate” — and he wasn’t saying which was which.

Meanwhile Brett Michaels is still publicly lobbying for the job, and Sean “Diddy” Combs repeated that he would be happy to do it — as long as he got the same salary as Simon.

So with a couple of the biggest jobs in popular TV still apparently wide open, who would you like to see dealing out the criticism when “American Idol” returns in January?

Fall? What fall? J.Lo says the day after AMAs

Jennifer Lopez is laughing off her fall at the American Music Awards on Sunday night.

“Did I trip a little bit? I don’t even remember,” the “Jenny from the Block” singer said on Monday morning to Ryan Seacrest on his Los Angeles radio show.

Lopez was laughing when she said that, and she followed it up with a joke — at least we at Fan Fare are taking it as a joke.

“Yeah I meant to do that,” she told Seacrest. “What are you talking about? You should know me better than that, that was part of the choreography.”

During the performance of her song “Louboutins,” Lopez walked on the backs of five male dancers as if she was climbing a staircase, and then jumped off the fifth man’s back and landed on her famously curvy backside. But in slightly less time than it takes for Auto-Tune to iron out bad vocals, Lopez was back on her feet, dancing and shaking.  Like nothing happened, right?

Well, not exactly. While it was probably overshadowed by “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert’s racy, controversial performance of his single “For Your Entertainment,” J.Lo’s fall also got plenty of attention.

Of course, J.Lo could always use this to her advantage. Before reality star Kim Kardashian came along, J.Lo had the most famous backside in Hollywood. Now that she has stamped a stage with it, J.Lo’s posterior is back in the news again.

Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams top movie romance list

With Valentine’s Day coming up on Saturday, many movie fans will be looking for a good romance film to spark their own love life. But not all movie couples can convince fans they belong together, either on-screen or off.

Online ticket seller Fandango conducted a poll of customers buying tickets for February movies, asking people about their favorite and least-liked romantic movie pairings. On Tuesday, Fandango released a top 10 and worst 10 list.

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams lead all couples for their performance in the 2004 movie “The Notebook.” They won 14 percent of the vote, four percent more than runner-ups Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the 2005′s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” The other couples on the list were, in order: Richard Gere and Julia Roberts (“Pretty Woman”); Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey (“Dirty Dancing”); Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (“Titanic”); Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore (“Ghost”); Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”); Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (“Brokeback Mountain”); and at No. 10, Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche (“Chocolate”).

Pitt and Jolie became inseparable after their on-set meeting in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”  and the two have since become a Hollywood supercouple with six children, including three adopted kids.

But Harry Medved, spokesman for Fandango, said that off-screen romance only counts for so much. “When it comes to classic mismatches, like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in ‘Gigli,’ the fact that the two stars may have been a couple off-screen didn’t make the on-screen chemistry between them any more convincing,” Medved said.

But JLo and Affleck, who since their 2003 movie “Gigli” have separated and are married to other entertainers, are not the most mismatched couple, according to Fandango customers.

Leading Fandango’s top 10 most mismatched couples were Jessica Alba and Mike Myers in 2008 movie “The Love Guru,” which was panned by critics and made only $32.2 million worldwide. That couple got 9 percent of votes, followed in second place by Woody Allen and Charlize Theron in “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” a 2001 movie that came out when the acclaimed actor and director was 65 and she was 26. The other names on the list in order were: Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen (“Knocked Up”); Adam Sandler and Kevin James (“I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”); Anne Heche and Harrison Ford (“Six Days Seven Nights”); Kate Winslet and Jack Black (“The Holiday”); Julia Roberts and Woody Allen (“Everyone Says I Love You”); Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron (“Hairspray”); Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes (“Maid in Manhattan”); and at No. 10, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck (“Gigli”).

Jennifer Lopez pays visit to camp Obama

Jennifer Lopez, 38, became the latest celebrity flocking to camp Obama when the singer and actress visited the Democratic presidential candidate’s senate offices this week. But her visit stopped short of an official endorsement.

On Thursday, Lopez’s spokeswoman issued a statement saying: “Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Lopez was on the Hill with her sister to meet with staff members of SEVERAL SENATORS to discuss issues she is interested in, such as health care and education.  She did visit Obama’s office, but the SENATOR was not there.  She did not meet him, but did discuss health care with members of his staff.”

Congressional newspaper The Hill reported that Lopez, dressed in sunglasses and a black cocktail dress, dropped by Sen. Barack Obama’s office in Washington, D.C. “I’m not ready to do any press yet,” Lopez said, when asked what she was doing at the Illinois senator’s office.

The Hill said Lopez, the star of “The Wedding Planner” and “Out of Sight,” caused a stir when she entered the Hart Senate Office Building, and slipped out secretly an hour-and-a-half later.

Obama became a star politician with a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and as a presidential hopeful he has attracted a raft of celebrity backers. Actress Scarlett Johansson has joked that she is “engaged” to the candidate, singer Bob Dylan has said he is hopeful about Obama, and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey famously stumped for the senator on the campaign trail.

But while camp O can count on ScarJo and the big O — and now has some interest from JLo – presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has his own celebrity endorsers including action star Sylvester Stallone, tough guy Tom Selleck and even former movie hero turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.