
The first promos for
American Idol season eight have started to air, and it appears Fox is taking two pretty different tactics when it comes to marketing this season.
One promo features the most recent winner, David Cook, flashing back through his Idol journey, which seems to fit with the network's plan to
make the show more emotional this year. The other features .

Welcome back to my
Buzz Gift Guide series for all the entertainment lovers in your life. This week is all about gifting your peers who are, like you, totally obsessed with pop culture. I already found gifts for the
Sex and the City fanatic and
t-shirt-loving chicas.

According to these teen girls, the wrong David won the most recent American Idol. Watch the horror show as they discover that David Cook rather than David Archuleta wins. (I feel your pain, you guys.

There have been
rumors flying recently that Paula Abdul could be on her way out of
American Idol to work on other TV projects. Adding fuel to the fire is the
addition of a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi, which means the panel wouldn't be shorthanded if Paula did take off. Now, her publicist has said
the rumor is "absolutely untrue," but it got me thinking.

American Idol winner Carrie Underwood is the latest star to have a wax figure sculpted in her likeness. The country singer posed with her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in New York City yesterday, and even linked arms with it. We've seen a fair few
waxworks in recent months, and I'd love to know what you think of this latest figure, so tell me: is Carrie Underwood's waxwork a fab likeness or just plain freaky?

With
American Idol winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta both about to release albums in the coming weeks, here's an interesting question: Can Idol still really make someone a star? And even if the answer to that question is yes, how many Idol-related singers can people manage to care about?
USA Today's Idol reporter suggests that
the Idol universe may be reaching the point of diminishing returns.

David Cook's first single has hit the Web, and I'm still sorting out how I feel about it. Is it too Creed-ish? Or is it exactly what you hoped to hear from the
American Idol winner?