Friday, May 15, 2009

Vindication

I was feeling kind of bad about all the vitriol I've been throwing at Danny. My mom really wanted him to win and she was sad to see him go, and after talking to her I thought I maybe had given him a hard time that he didn't deserve.

So just now I started clicking on the links on this page, mostly because I wanted to see who VFTW has selected to replace him (they haven't yet,) and for the first time this year I went to the main AI site, where I found links to "initial reaction" videos taped with the departing Idol immediately after the show. In his, Danny is shell-shocked, agrees that his departure is a shocker, and then immediately talks about laying on his dead wife's casket 10 months ago. Let me guess, Danny. The AI producers told you to bring that up? I mean, you don't want your wife's tragically young death to be the focus of your Idol story, right?

It isn't that I don't have compassion for the guy. I don't like him, but I'm sorry he's had such loss in his life and I'm sure that this is very emotional for him. I just think it's unseemly to bring it up in this context, and a classy contestant would have expressed disappointment but wished the others well. For instance, Allison - who could try to justify petulant moodiness with her youth - was crying and obviously disappointed, but she found a way to smile and said that most of the tears were because she would miss the other contestants, because they were great guys and she was happy for them.

Well done, Danny. I feel better now. Absolved, even.

4 comments:

BeckEye said...

Not surprising. I didn't need to find any vindication. I knew the guy was a douche, plain and simple. I have sympathy for anyone who's been through a tragedy, but he's not the first person to ever experience loss. And the way HE was marketing himself as a "tragedy to triumph" story was just disgusting. It's not like he overcame an illness or handicap or beat the odds to enter a singing competition.

Dale said...

My greatest moment in the whole thing was following the link in Beckeye's recap to the video of Danny performing for his hometown crowd and not knowing the lyrics to Billie Jean. It was exquisite.

Melinda June said...

Exactly. I mean, it's like he had a handicap to overcome. The mediocre talent with a handicap story was Scott.

Anonymous said...

Allison FTW in reality.