Archuleta dismisses gossip about father, is likely to go to finals

On a day when gossip and innuendo about his father threatened to spin out of control, David Archuleta did what David Archuleta does best — displayed his amazing vocals.

He may not have wowed the "American Idol" judges as much on Tuesday night as he has in some other weeks, but the consensus was that the Davids — Archuleta and Cook — are headed for the finals next week.

The results of this week's voting will be announced at 8 p.m. today on Fox/Ch. 13. As always, "Idol" doesn't release any vote totals, but host Ryan Seacrest said this season has been "the closest race this show has ever seen."

Each of the three finalists — the Davids and Syesha Mercado — sang three songs on Tuesday: one chosen by a judge; one by themselves; one by the producers.

Archuleta opened with Billy Joel's "And So It Goes." Judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul raved; Simon Cowell disagreed, to some extent, calling it "predictable" and saying, "I don't think it was outstanding."

All three judges agreed that Archuleta chose badly when he chose to sing Chris Brown's "With You."

"It was a little bit like a Chihuahua trying to be a tiger insomuch as it's not really you," Cowell said as Archuleta forced a smile.

And, while none of the three was particularly happy that producers chose Dan Fogelberg's "Longer" for Archuleta, they defended his performance.

"You can sing the phone book," Jackson said. "It was another hot one from you." Abdul called it "a lovely performance."

And Cowell declared, "I do think you've done enough to get into the finals next week."

Unfortunately for Archuleta, gossip and tabloid reports about his father — that Jeff Archuleta is an overbearing stage father who was banned from the "Idol" studio by producers — have reached a crescendo in the past couple of days.

And speculation about how all of this will affect the outcome of the "American Idol" competition washed across the media. Fairly typical was an assessment in the Dallas Morning News that "the scandal involving his dad" will hurt David. "That leads to the question: Does David want this, or is Daddy Dearest forcing him into showbiz. Then again, the hoopla over his father could also increase his fans' puppy love."

In an interview with TV Guide magazine, the Murray teen dismissed the stories about his dad.