A lot can happen before 'Idol' is over

Amanda Overmyer didn't exactly win any points for being warm and cuddly, but the most recently eliminated "American Idol" finalist does get points for honesty.

In a conference call with TV critics after she was voted off the "Idol" island, Overmyer was (predictably) asked who she thinks the eventual winner is going to be.

"I have no idea," she said.

Good answer!

Anybody who's watched "American Idol" at all knows that it's possible to be up one week and down the next. And a lot of frontrunners have gone by the wayside in previous seasons.

Overmyer was correct when she pointed out that two finalists who got good reviews from the judges (and were not in the bottom three of the voting) last week haven't had entirely smooth rides to this point. Not even Utah teen David Archuleta, who's been the favorite from the moment the final 24 were announced.

"All I can say is Syesha (Mercado), at one point, wasn't the favored one," Overmyer said. "And David, at one point, got slammed by the judges. It's anybody's game, you know? It's definitely anybody's game and I don't venture to make a prediction."

Good answer!

"TMZ" IS KNOWN for going hyperbolic on a daily basis, but the gossip TV show was more than a bit over the top in its portrayal of David Archuleta's father, Jeff, last week.

Not only did the show refer to him as "the stage dad from hell," it compared him to Josef Stalin, Kim Jong Il, "that horned thing from (the movie) 'Legend"' and Martha Stewart.

OK, the Martha Stewart thing is kind of funny. But, c'mon, you're comparing him to a Soviet dictator responsible for tens of millions of deaths? That's a bit much.

"Evil has plagued mankind for centuries," the TMZ narration intoned last week. "Now it has a new face. This man — Jeff Archuleta, father of 'American Idol' cherub David Archuleta, aka the stage dad from the depths of hell."

Hyperbolic indeed.

The "report" cited unnamed sources when it cited any at all, and it was pretty much a regurgitation of the unsubstantiated gossip done earlier by "Entertainment Tonight."

"TMZ" accused Jeff Archuleta of "mind games, making his son cry and sabotaging competitors." Cut to video of David saying he "feels stressed thinking about it."