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'IDOL' BUZZ / Pickler's appearance wasn't a complete bust

http://www.newsday.com/features/printedition/ny-ffbuzz5121671mar11,0,5671989.story?coll=ny-features-print

When Season 5 finalist Kellie Pickler returned to "American Idol" recently to sing "I Wonder," a song she co-wrote about growing up without the mother who had abandoned her, her appearance raised comment from all quarters, with many saying she looked 20 years older than the fresh-faced 19-year-old who sang on "Idol's" stage only a year before. But most of the buzz was about her apparently enlarged bustline.

Even Simon Cowell had something to say. He told girlfriend Terri Seymour, a reporter for "Extra," "It's like she went to Dolly

Parton school or something. I've never seen anything like it in my life. ... Me and Randy were like, 'Where did they come from?'"

But there was one person who thought she looked just fine. And that was Cynthia Morton, Pickler's long-estranged mom. Morton told the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer that she was touched by her daughter's performance. "She was very elegant looking. She was very classy. She made me proud. She dressed like a little lady."

SIMON SAYS. Cowell didn't save all his snarky remarks for Pickler. The Washington Post reports that during an "American Idol" panel at the Museum of Television & Radio's 24th annual William S. Paley TV Festival in Los Angeles, Cowell told the audience the other judges loved last season's winner, Taylor Hicks, but that "I couldn't stand him." He also thought Prince shouldn't have been included on last year's finale because he refused to sing with the finalists.

When "Idol" director Ken Warwick said that Janet Jackson had wanted to be on the show this season but they couldn't squeeze her in, Cowell retorted, "I don't blame you; I wouldn't have her."

And when the panelists were reminded that whenever a singer appears on "Idol," his or her catalog sales go through the roof, Cowell remarked, "Except Neil Sedaka. His went backwards."