There have been rumors for a while that Mary has gotten a little bit too close to some of the male ballroom boys, many of whom in the early days when she used to choreograph for the show, wound up being her "assistants" when she'd be teaching the routines to the kids. I definitely remember a lot of talk about Dmitri and a couple of others. Also, SYTYCD has had a bad track record of judges and choreographers with questionable sexual ethics (see also: Shane Sparks and Alex da Silva). I don't know about the coke, but since I've often accused her of dressing like a coke whore, I suppose it'd be wrong of me to get up on my high horse now.
AI:
I Have Nothing for Jessica Sanchez? That was a terrible, terrible song choice. No Whitney performance from her is ever going to match up to her totally destroying I Will Always Love You in week one. Anything else will pale in comparison. She sounded fine, a couple of struggles on some of the bigger held notes, but she always sounds fine. That's the way of the -bot. Nothing about that performance was memorable, would make me want to pick up the phone, or would make me think she can be a viable radio artist. Also, they made her wear one of those old pantyhose colored dresses and I hate those.
Stand by Me for Phil. Well, he Phil-ed the hell out of it and I disliked it, but I think his fans will love it and that it stood out more. Why is Randy dressed like an orange creamsicle? So much hate.
Round one for no one. Try to do better next round, kids.
The Prayer for Jessica . . . was just gorgeous. She really can just sang. I liked that oceans more than the first performance. She really owned that song. You can tell she's been singing it forever. Sadly, that's two drippy, gloopy ballads in a row. At least this one wasn't too old for her. And she looked lovely.
Movin' Out for Phil . . . was tons better than his round one performance. This is his sweet spot. And funky girl saxophonist is back. He always performs better when she's around. I think he has a crush, trying to impress her. He was confident here and in better voice, or as good as his voice gets. And he didn't sound like Dave Matthews, so that's a plus.
I'd give this round to Jessica but that's partly due to the fact that I just don't like Phil. Better this round, children. I'm sure that will disappear with the terrible winner's single.
Idol song for Jessica . . . and I couldn't even catch the name during the first chorus becasue it just sounded like her screaming "Da woo-da woo-da chin na siiiiing" but I think the lyric is actually "That's when I wanna change nothing". And the song is typically terrible, treacly drivel which she screeches her way through but seriousl, WTF with the judging? It's not like Jessica Sanchez sat in her bedroom with her Trapper Keeper and wrote that song. 19E came to her and gave her a song and she sang it like the good little -bot she's been trained to be. So I do not understand at all the judges "feedback"Got a problem with the song? Take it up with Nigel and Simon. Feh.