Guest blogger Lenni G. gives the recap:

Kris Allen, current American Idol, dropped by to remind us why he won and Adam didn't. No gimmicks, just pure musicality.

You rock Kris, But, as usual, I digress.

This morning, "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert appeared on CBS' "The Early Show" to talk about his risque and controversial performance on Sunday night's American Music Awards.

If you're not up to speed, ABC got more than 1,500 complaints about the performance which featured Lambert kissing a man and shoving a dancer's face into his crotch.

That led to ABC's morning show "Good Morning America" canceling his appearance, and "The Early Show" swooping in to get the scoop from Lambert.

Though I'm not a fan of Lambert's choices during the performance, I thought he was pretty terrific this morning. In the age of the insincere apology after celebrities do wrong, Lambert was forthright, not apologizing, but acknowledging his mistakes.

Watch it yourself and see what you think.

Get ready to rumble, Claymates.

Your Clay Aiken is taking on the Wake County School Board, so that means you are taking on the school board, too! You gotta have Clay's back, right?

The "American Idol" runner-up called the newly-elected board members "selfish idiots" on his blog recently (and apparently also called Carrie Prejean a "dumbass"). So go ahead and start your internet campaigns!

Click over to read all the details on the N&O news side. 

If there's a shortcut to paydirt in the music industry nowadays, it's got to be "American Idol." Just ask Triangle native Anoop Desai, who is still working off the momentum of his finalist showing from this past season.

"It's been very, very positive for me," Desai says of his run on the show. "There's no formula. All of us who got through the first round were very lucky, and we just kept going from there. It does seem like such a long time ago that it happened -- a year ago. I'd tell people, just be prepared for your life to change completely, overnight. It has been a good thing for me."

Desai sings next week at the NC State Fair. For details on that, as well as some talk about deep-fried cuisine, see the interview in Friday's paper.

UPDATED: It's Scott Savol, a finalist on American Idol season four. Savol is giving a guest motivational speech for students in a Hillside assembly. He is also likely to sing this morning.

Savol made it to the top 5 of contestants in season four. He is married and a father - but he was also known for a controversy that season. That's because Savol had previously been charged with misdemeanor assault for hitting his girlfriend and mother of his son with a telephone on Valentine's Day 2001. Savol pled the charge down to disorderly conduct and received probation while also taking a domestic violence class. I wonder if he'll be discussing that with the students.

Looks like there's going to be a surprise visitor at Hillside High school tomorrow.

New principal Hans Lassiter hinted as much on his Twitter account:

"Someone SPECIAL is coming to HHS on Friday morning! This is the FIRST in our HOPE Series! Stay tuned! It's gonna be DA BOMB!"

Following a visit by Bill and Melinda Gates to the Performance Learning Center two weeks ago, I'm betting it won't be small potatoes.

You always sort of knew it would come to this: Former "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks hitting the boards on Broadway, playing a wild-card supporting role in "Grease," which opens in Durham next week. For details on that, plus Hicks' thoughts on various other matters, see the interview in Friday's paper.

ADDENDUM (10/8/09): Review of the show. 

Fox pretty much sent out a big ole "Suck it, Paula Abdul!" last night when they announced that talk show host Ellen Degeneres will be the permanent 4th judge on "American Idol" this season.

As soon as "Idol" auditions are over (which will feature a host of guest judges such as Neil Patrick Harris, Victoria Beckham, and Mary J. Blige) Degeneres will take her spot at the table along with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi.

Signing Ellen is a genius move by Fox. Not only did ...

A representative of Victoria Beckham has confirmed to BBC News that the former Spice Girl is replacing Paula Abdul as judge on "American Idol."

For one show, that is. 

This could be a signal that "Idol" wants to keep the four-judge format, but fill the fourth spot with a rotating list of guests judges.  

Beckham, a fashion designer, is married to soccer star David Beckham. 

UPDATE: READ BELOW!

Paula Abdul has announced via Twitter that she will not return to "American Idol." The reason, of course, is cash.

Fellow judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest both pull down huge salaries for appearing on "Idol" (a reported $45 million per year for Cowell, $10 million per year for Seacrest, plus additional money for merchandising rights). According to The Washington Post, Abdul was making $4 million a year (The New York Times reports $2 million per year, but ...

Adrienne told us yesterday about how Clay Aiken slammed fellow "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert on his blog Thursday. If you didn't click through to the Gawker site to read the entire rant (which has now been deleted from Clay's blog), you may have missed some juicy backstory about Clay being tossed from the "American Idol" set when he showed up there recently to meet Lambert.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Aiken showed up at the "American Idol" set and . . .