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American Idol LA auditions, Perry should be permanent, Lavigne dreadful

By April MacIntyre Jan 27, 2010, 14:52 GMT

Katy Perry Fame Pictures, Inc - Santa Monica, CA, USA

Last night's auditions were held in Los Angeles, and the show revealed two very important truths.

Katy Perry is delightful, quick-witted and can go toe to toe with the egomaniacal Kara DioGuardi, and Avril Lavigne needs to zip it forever and enroll in college.

Case in point: The ridiculous devil Hoodie worn by Ms. Lavigne who made childish faces and inane comments with each auditioner.  She has zero appeal, either to look at or to listen to. Memo to Avril: You are 25 years-old now, Hot Topic clothes and giggly asides should be shunted.

However, Ms. Perry is a vision to look at, and is fearless at expressing herself amidst the 800 pound gorillas known as the Idol Judges. She looked like old Hollywood glamour and her hair and makeup were impeccable.

DioGuardi has taken the Paula Abdul empathy "sweetie" "honey" mantle upon herself to "feel" the contestants and their sob stories, and is the default warm fuzzy in the departed Paula's wake. 

Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne have some history in common, they both had to fight for their respective careers and get what it takes to break through.  Perry played hotel lobbies at SXSW for goodness sakes!  Now she has bagged Russell Brand and has a solid recording and touring career.

Overall the L.A. auditions on Tuesday night's (Jan. 26) "Idol" were pretty flat save for a few stand outs, but the real eye candy was the growing tension between Kara and Katy, that first struck me as playing to the cameras, but as the day wore on, the body language spoke volumes: Kara had a cud full of Katy, and vice versa.

Producers cobbled together an Adam Lambert montage that showed how far-reaching the singer's style has rubbed off on the hopefuls, to no avail for the Adam wannabes those two days. 

But for Avril Lavigne, one contestant just rubbed her the wrong way, the Worship Pastor and father of three Neil Ranger, 27, who could really sing, but it wasn't music to Lavigne's ears.  Lavigne nattered about how hard it was to tour and how much time would be spent on the road, blah blah blah, the other judges interceded and he made it through anyway.

On day two, Perry was the stand in judge talent for a day that produced very few potential stars.

The one stand out creep was the gender bender red-head who posed, pouted and preened the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself" and generally grossed out everyone within earshot.

Now the one story that made me bawl like a baby was the gangbanger's son, Andrew Garcia, 23, who thanks to his parent's love and survival skills, will offer his son a different life path.  His dad's emotion in talking about their struggle to survive in their neighborhood and how limited his choices were was a gut punch.

Andrew's voice was rich and resonated with the entire judges' panel, as Garcia receive the highest huzzah from Simon Cowell, who said he was "the only person who's walked through today who I genuinely believe is a good singer."

Indeed.

Idol always seems to save the best performers for last, and the female assistant /minister Tasha Layton, 26, did a righteous version of Joss Stone's "Baby, Baby, Baby."

There was the foster kid (25 foster families) who was looking for some redemption and approval, 25-year-old Los Angeles shoe salesman Chris Golightly.

He turned out a decent Ben E. King's "Stand by Me," which was where the divide amongst the judges reared its ugly head.

Kara was cartwheels for this guy, Perry not so much.

Simon sort of agreed with the underwhelmed Perry, who dismissed the sad history of the singer and based her assessment on performance.

Kara wasn't having it, and after Perry smacked her back with "This is not a Lifetime movie, sweetheart," Kara began with the side-eye rolling shank daggers.

"He has an amazing story," DioGuardi countered.

"He has an amazing story, but you have to have talent," Perry said. "Everybody has amazing stories."

There's a lot of speculation about who will inherit Simon's spot on Idol next year, with observers saying guys like Tommy Mottola, Jimmy Iovine and Guy Oseary have the music biz chops to equal Simon's.

What Katy Perry proved last night was a clever woman should also be considered for the slot, not just a crusty older music executive.

In the end, 22 others from Los Angeles made it through to the Hollywood round. Wednesday night's (Jan, 27) show will feature Dallas with guest panelists Joe Jonas and Neil Patrick Harris.

See you tomorrow.