Coldplay, Foo Fighters and Jennifer Hudson were among the pop stars paying tribute to Neil Diamond Friday night in Los Angeles to kick off Grammy weekend charity event, MusicCares Person of the Year.

The celebrity-studded gathering of 2,200 people at the L.A. Convention Center honored Diamond, 68, for his philanthropy, including large donations to relief efforts for Texas areas ravaged by Hurricane Ike.

Diamond thanked his children and grandchildren who forgave him for often leaving home to tour and work on “my little musical creations.” The singer-songwriter also thanked his mother for setting him on his musical path, getting him a guitar as a kid in Brooklyn

“When the Brooklyn Dodgers left Brooklyn, I was so depressed, my parents bought a guitar and paid it off $1 a week, for 10 weeks. It was a good investment, Mom. You made a life for me,” he said.

Hudson’s moving rendition of “Holly Holy” and Coldplay’s smooth version of Diamond’s “I’m A Believer,” made famous by the Monkees were among the highlighted performances showcasing Diamond’s 50-year body of work. The Jonas Brothers kicked off the show with “Forever in Blue Jeans.”

Diamond, himself, slow-danced with Faith Hill during their duet on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” and then roused the crowd with “America” and his finale of “Sweet Caroline.”

Host Jimmy Kimmel called Diamond “one of the few Jews who looks good in sequins” riffing on Diamond’s penchant for sparkly clothes during the 1970s.

Recording Academy president Neil Portnow said he told Diamond, “welcome to your bar mitzvah” upon greeting him on Friday night and then wound up buying the singer/songwriter’s donated 1956 Thunderbird convertible at a live auction with a bid of $75,000. Portnow and Diamond said they planned to take a ride together.

Update: I made some changes here. The folks at Fox say that Tony Vinciquerra said he found the results shows in season seven boring -- not the finale. They were right and I was wrong. Here is the entry, with my corrections (I rewrote the headline too.

You can't say that Fox Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra isn't clear about what he wants from the American Idol staff. In short: he wants a less boring season finale with more interesting coaches for the contestants... and while we're at it, more interesting contestants.

Talk about tough love from the big boss!

Here is what Vinciquerra said at a conference earlier on Wednesday when asked about News Corp's Fox Network and the popular show that turns ordinary people into super-celebrities: The season seven finale (no -- the result shows) were boring.

As for the celebrities who showed up as coaches, there was someone from Broadway whom "no one had ever heard of." Then there was Dolly Parton: "A wonderful performer, but not what you want in developing the 18-49 audience." And Neil Diamond: "Not the person you would want to be bringing in very young consumers, which is the audience of the show."

And then there was one more critique: "I'm actually hoping the contestants have some personality this year, unlike last year." Then he asked the moderator and the audience at the show to please not tell anyone that he said that.

We like Cat Stevens's admonition: "If you want to sing out, sing out!" Then again, he's too old for American Idol too, isn't he, Tony?

(Photo: Reuters)

In seven seasons of “American Idol,” Paula Abdul has definitely had her moments.

But her gaffe on Tuesday night’s episode was either the “Kookiest Paula Moment Ever” or a sign of the judges’ apparently not-so-spontaneous evaluations of contestants’ performances.

Abdul on Wednesday sought to explain the blunder as a simple misunderstanding. “We all just screwed up everything,” she told Entertainment Tonight.

It was Neil Diamond night, and after each of the show’s five remaining contestants sang their first of two songs for the evening, the judges were asked to comment on their performances.

Randy Jackson quickly rattled off his impressions, and then Abdul launched into a lengthy analysis of contestant Jason Castro’s two performances. Yes, that’s right. Abdul remembered TWO performances. When Castro, and all of the other contestants, had only performed ONCE.

“Oh my God, I thought you sang twice,” a flustered Abdul said when Jackson gently pointed out that Castro had only performed one song so far. She added: “This is hard!”

“You’re seein’ the future baby, you’re seein’ the future!” host Ryan Seacrest said.

Abdul tried to cover for the mistake by saying she had been reading her notes from both Castro’s performance and contestant David Cook’s performances.

The flub was enough to convince some fans that Abdul must have prepared her notes on both songs before the live performance.

On the “Idol” forums, some fans pondered whether the judges’ comments were a function of who the show’s producers want to win rather than the content of the performances. Others gave the show the benefit of the doubt, saying Abdul must have taken notes at the dress rehearsals

Abdul explained on Wednesday that Idol producers had thrown the judges a last minute curveball during the show.  “I am feverishly trying to write notes for every performance,” she recounted, saying her notes got mixed up.

“I was just trying to give my critique for Jason Castro, and scribbled Jason’s name, and that was David (Cook)’s. “This is live television. This is fun!,” she said.