From Deseret News archives:
Archuleta sets hens a-clucking
Depends on whom you believe. And some of those writing about him simply cannot bring themselves to believe the former, so they've decided the latter must be true.
The Boston Globe's Joanna Weiss clearly thinks Archuleta, who performed Tuesday with the four other "American Idol" finalists, is somehow faking it.
"Archuleta has mastered the wide-eyed wonder, shyly mouthed 'thank you,' the look of relief, as if he's finally confident that somebody won't hit him with a stick," she wrote recently. "Some could find it charming. Others find false modesty a little off-putting."
It's a common theme that Archuleta's shy modesty is just too good to be true.
Imagine that! A critic reacting cynically!
(It's understandable, of course, when you cover something as cynical as the entertainment industry.)
Not that everyone is overwhelmed by cynicism. Fresno Bee blogger Mary Lou Aguirre wrote, "My son-in-law, the American Idol, has a nice ring to it. No?"
Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times called Archuleta the "presumptive (but never presumptuous!) boy king."
"His enormous, obvious-even-to-the-tone-deaf vocal gifts have at times made him look like nothing so much as that beloved show-biz trope, the competition-crushing prodigy: Think Tom Hulce as Mozart in 'Amadeus.'"
Collins' L.A. Times colleague, Ann Powers, took the opposite view. She mocked Archuleta's reaction when the judges praised him.
"True to form, the Chosen One feigned mild astonishment, like a child gazing in wonder upon his birthday cake," she wrote after apparently using psychic powers to read the Murray teen's mind.
"The flaw in Archuleta's artistry is his complete lack of affect beyond bashful awe at everyone's enthusiasm," Powers wrote. "Chalk it up to youth, except this isn't how a real kid acts.... Archie is a creature of the stage an interpreter of his own life and that makes him just a little hard to trust, or love."
Ouch.
Cary Aspin Wall of the Tulsa World doesn't just think Archuleta isn't displaying true emotions, she apparently has decided he doesn't have any emotions:
Recent comments
I remember from Season 5 of 2 years ago, that there were many...
Archangelia | May 25, 2008 at 7:12 p.m.
Why would you bring up the tab choir? What do they have to do with...
barb | May 5, 2008 at 7:03 a.m.
I think David A. is the best singer they have had on the show in...
grandma | May 4, 2008 at 9:22 p.m.
- Store planning for Palin crush 1:45 p.m.
- Vietnam vet finally gets Purple Heart 1:35 p.m.
- Grad rates between blacks, whites 1:25 p.m.
- Cautiously optimistic Bernanke 1:22 p.m.
- TCU's BCS game missing something 1:18 p.m.
- Snowstorm sweeps across West 1:17 p.m.
- Pilots blame air traffic controllers 12:55 p.m.
- Senate confronts abortion in debate 12:46 p.m.
- 2 bombs kill 34 in Lahore 12:41 p.m.
- U.N. climate conference opens 12:29 p.m.
- Letters: Liberal because LDS
268 - Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
244 - Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
190 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
188 - Aggies shoot past Cougars
179 - N.Y. Senate rejects gay marriage
135 - Cougars going back to Vegas
128 - George lost in rivalry hatefest
117 - Utah/BYU rivalry can be more civil
99 - Ed Smart 'appalled' at testimony
98
As distressing as it was to see KUTV's longtime vice president/general...
I really don't understand why anyone would spend even a second (or even one...
Don, Just have family and friends look at your picture on the blog and call...
One of the many untold stories from Vietnam is all the serviceman who shunned...
Much ado about nothing
TCU is getting robbed outright by not getting a chance to play one of the...
Her first name is Ali, not Shelley. Good luck to you Ali!
Nice comment. I can admit I am not totally comfortable at all with resigning...
Thank you for your service and on this special day, thank you to all of the...
Here last name is Shelley. Her first name is Ali. Best of luck to you, Ali!
playoff between the MWC and WAC conference leaders so that this doesn't...



