According to
Drudge Report, Fox received several phones complaining that Simon Cowell rolled his eyes when the Virginia native, Chris Robinson sent his support to the people of Virginia Tech. A Fox source told Drudge that Chris thought Simon’s eye roll was “sad and hurtful.” A Fox spokesperson told Drudge, “Look, in his defense, Simon felt Chris was cynically deflecting his criticism,” a FOX executive explained. “It was unfortunate… he clearly was unaware the camera was on him when he rolled his eyes, and he was hardly making a rude gesture to the victims.” I agree with the Fox spokesperson, that it was Simon referring to Chris saying he choose to sing nasally because that is a singing style and not about what happened at VT. Look we all know Country night is painful for Simon and although last night was not bad as year’s past, it was still bad. And when it comes to Chris’ singing I have to admit it was way too nasally for my ears and Chris’ rebuttal was a stupid one.
Also in defense of Simon after Blake Lewis performed Simon made a special note that the 3 Judges send their best wishes and support to the families of the tragedy and he understood it was a tricky week for the contestants. For those of us who watch American Idol on weekly basis we know it would not be Simon’s style to roll his eyes about such a terrible tragedy, but he would roll his eyes when a contestant says something stupid.
UPDATE: Drudge Report got this statement from Nigel Lythgoe:
“This is a sad time for everyone, so it is especially disheartening that a quick camera cutaway could have been misinterpreted. We’re sorry for any grief caused by this misunderstanding, but Simon was not reacting to Chris at that point. He had turned to speak to Paula and didn’t actually hear Chris’ final comments.”
Lythgoe continues: “Everyone at ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ feels compassion for those affected by this tragedy. We opened the show with those thoughts and Simon later expressed sincere condolences on behalf of the judges, recognizing the challenges we all face in dealing with this horrible event.”
