Second-season American Idol champ Ruben Studdard obtained a marriage license Monday in Alabama, PEOPLE has learned.
Studdard, 29, arrived at the Shelby County Probate Office in Birmingham with fiancé Surata Zuri McCants, 30, just before noon, filled out the paperwork and walked away with their license, an eyewitness says. Studdard is a Birmingham native.
“They looked really happy,” says the eyewitness.
There was no immediate word on when they planned to marry. An Alabama marriage license is valid for 30 days.
American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, 17, will have close supervision as he hits the road for the summer’s American Idols Live! Tour. His father Jeff, who had his backstage privileges revoked in the final weeks of Idol, will be on the tour bus with his son and the other top five guys (Michael Johns, David Cook, Chikezie and Jason Castro).
“I forgot about that,” David laughed coyly to PEOPLE when fellow Idol Carly Smithson asked Michael Johns if anyone on the guy’s bus snores. “Just your dad,” quipped Johns at the L.A. press day for the Pop Tarts presents American Idol Live! Tour 2008, which kicks off in Brooke White’s hometown of Glendale, Ariz., on July 1.
“We don’t have dancers on the tour so we are utilizing Jeff Archuleta as our break dancer at the end,” Smithson joked. “He came in with his hat all bent and this big T-shirt on and he looked all like street kid!”
But David also explained that his parents will mostly likely switch off when and where they can. “I think they’re going to trade when we go to Utah,” he said. “If she has time, you know it’s all a matter of how things work out, because she has the other four kids to look after, and they all want her.”
There will be two buses on the tour, one for the men and one for the women. “It’ll be quite the experience,” said a slightly apprehensive Archuleta.
Added Smithson, whose husband will be back in San Diego during the 3-month tour, “It’s important to keep your family as normal as possible, especially for [David].” –Jed Dreben
Paula Abdul has split from boyfriend, restaurateur J.T. Torregiani, her rep confirms exclusively to Usmagazine.
The pair parted ways more than two months ago. Torregiani, 33 — a partner in the Dolce Group — has moved out of the American Idol judge’s Los Angeles home.
“She’s doing fine,” a source close to Abdul, 46, tells Us. “She has moved on with her life.”
Abdul and Torregiani began dating in April 2007 when he introduced himself to her after an Idol taping.
In June 2007, he threw her a 45th birthday party at Ketchup, the West Hollywood eatery he co-owns.
“He’s a sweetie pie,” she told USA Today last October. “He’s a positive force that has come into my life right now. Where it leads, who knows?”
Abdul told the paper that a baby was “the next step in my life.
“Definitely within the next two years,” she said. “I thought by now I’d have three grown children.”
A musicians union has filed a federal lawsuit against the producers of “American Idol,” claiming musicians were underpaid because the show’s live music was re-recorded for reruns.
The American Federation of Musicians filed the suit seeking unspecified damages Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that American Idol Productions Inc. and its subsidiary Tick Tock Productions Inc. violated a collective bargaining agreement.
That contract says the show’s musicians should be paid royalties for rebroadcasts of the show, the lawsuit said.
The producers are required to pay 75 percent of scale to musicians who appear in the original show and rehearsals, plus 10 percent of that pay to a union pension fund, with decreasing percentages for each rebroadcast, according to court papers.
In 2007, the producers started cutting out the show’s soundtrack and using different musicians to re-record new music for the past-season highlights show “American Idol Rewind,” the lawsuit said.
The union was not informed of the recording, according to court papers.
Phone messages left Thursday night with a representative for American Idol Productions were not returned.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Carrie Underwood may have won “American Idol” and a Grammy — but she hasn’t let it go to her head.
“I don’t consider myself sexy … I’m kind of a nervous person in general,” Underwood, 25, admits in the July issue of Cosmopolitan.
“I’m socially awkward,” she adds. “I’m not tall and sensuous. I usually wear sweats everywhere I go. Oh, and I burp a lot.”
Underwood, an Us Weight Winner, has dated her share of good-looking guys, including “Gossip Girl’s” Chace Crawford and current Jessica Simpson beau Tony Romo.
As for their splits?
While she doesn’t name names, she says, “Cheating is a deal breaker - If you cheat, you’re gone.” Underwood, who told “Extra” her April break up with Crawford was over text, doesn’t believe in plotting against her exes.
“Getting revenge on a guy is just not worth it to me,” she says. “The best revenge I can think of is becoming famous.”
Carrie Underwood made her guest appearance in the season finale of the American Idol, 2008. She has been on American Idol so many times that she has almost become a regular fixture of A.I. Carrie has become very successful since A.I. brough her fame and a recording contract. Carrie looked pretty in her white dress and scarf. She would be giving a performance at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena on Saturday, June 14, 2008.
Rocker, David Cook, triumphed over his competitor David Archuleta last night and rightfully claimed the “American Idol” title.
While the judges Tuesday crowned Archuleta the winner of the three singing rounds, the voters decided otherwise and in a huge unexpected way. Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook won by 12 million votes.
Right before the winner was announced, Simon Cowell said that he wanted to apologize to Cook because looking back at the tape, the competition “wasn’t quite so clear cut as we called it.” He felt he was on the verge of being disrespectful when he commented on how stupid it was for David Cook to pick the final song he sang. He also said that both guys deserved to be there and for the first time in American Idol history, he really didn’t care who won.
When Ryan announced Cook’s name, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Bending down and coming back up with tear filled eyes, the second time in many nights that the scruffy-faced rocker broke down.
“This is amazing,” he said. “This is all your fault,” he added, addressing his brother, Andrew. The story goes that Cook was only tagging along with his sibling to the “Idol” auditions to lend support, and wound up getting on the show.
To close out the show, Cook took the mic one last time on the American Idol stage and sang his new single “Time of My Life,” a song written by Nashville singer/songwriter Reggie Hamm, winner of the annual “Idol” songwriting competition.
“If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite, I’ll choose the lesser-known every time,” Cook told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.
While “Idol” ratings were down all season, the final contest turned that tide. The viewership of Tuesday’s show went up 3 percent over last year’s performance finale. The David competition provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year’s total vote count was 74 million.
*For those David Cook fans, here is David Cook in a Guitar Hero commercial, Risky Business style.
Finishing off the seventh season of Fox’s reality hit, Missouri-native David Cook took home the title Wednesday night after beating out 17-year-old David Archuleta.
“I’m absolutely at a loss for words right now,” Cook said through tears. “This is amazing — thank you!”
Cook then performed ballad, “Time of My Life”
Over 97.5 million finale votes — an Idol record! — were cast to determine the winner. Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook won by 12 million votes.
Cook was fighting an uphill battle: after Tuesday night’s David vs. David three song showdown, Cowell declared Archuleta “a knock out.”
“I feel really good,” Archuleta gushed to joyoncam.com on Tuesday. “Both me and Cook just gave it all we had and even though Simon wasn’t so favoring Cook, he did so well.”
Cook agreed with Cowell that it was Archuleta’s night. “I have to concede it,” he told Usmagazine.com. “The kid came out all three songs and nailed it. But I walk away from this with my head held high.”
The 25-year-old bartender has had a rough season: he was rushed to the hospital in April after suffering from heart palpitations and high blood pressure. He still managed to perform Dolly Parton’s tune “Little Sparrow” on the show.
Later that month, he broke down in tears after performing Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” in front of his brother, Adam, 36, who is battling brain cancer.
Throughout the season rumors swirled about Archuleta’s overbearing father Jeff.
In early May the Associated Press and TMZ reported that Jeff (who has insisted to Usmagazine.com that he’s “no stage dad”) was banned from backstage and show rehearsals.
The final straw was when Jeff reportedly insisted his son switch up the lyrics of “Stand by Me” ton include a verse from Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls,” despite warnings from show producers not to do so.
This is a hard battle. I have no idea which David is going to win tonight on American Idol. Due to yesterdays judges decision, the winner should be David Archuleta. But in my opinion, based on the performances, I think that David Cook should win.
My money is on David Archuleta. He is a 16 year-old power house, who sings ballads so beautifully and has been consistent every week. The only problem is that it seems like he can only sing ballads. When he tries to sing up beat pop songs he just sounds off, like he can’t keep up with the melody. So I don’t know exactly what he has to offer record wise.
I would love, love, love it if David Cook won. I have been a fan of his since he sang Lionel Richie’s Hello. And although some of his performances haven’t been that good, I must admit, when he sang Billie Jean and Eleanor Rigby, he got me excited about competition again. And like he said last night, this competition is about growth as an artist, and he has truely grown more than Archuleta has.
Both of these singers are phenomenal. I don’t think it really matters who actually wins. Both of their albums I’m sure will be great. But if Archuleta doesn’t win he can always follow Clay Aiken’s footsteps and do Broadway.
I turned on “American Idol” this evening and they are really building up the whole David Cook Versus David Archuleta battle! They even started the show with each of them coming out in boxing gloves. And although the two singers were very gracious towards one another, tonight’s show really is the brawl for it all!
David Cook did a great job on his opening song, but David Archuleta absolutely blew his version of ”Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” out of the box (to quote Randy Jackson)! And I’m so overwhelmed by Archuleta that I can not for the life of me remember what Cook sang for his opening song.
And Simon Cowell really said it best, “Round one goes to David Archuleta.”
Lyrics for Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me:
I can’t light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I’m growing tired and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life
Too late to save myself from falling
I took a chance and changed your way of life
But you misread my meaning when I met you
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light
Don’t let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself, it’s always someone else I see
I’d just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me
I can’t find, oh the right romantic line
But see me once and see the way I feel
Don’t discard me just because you think I mean you harm
But these cuts I have they need love to help them heal