Idol fans! 

Only five contestants remain after Siobhan Magnus was voted off the American Idol stage Wednesday night...

There was a lot of buzz over her hair and outfits (butterflies?) but did people focus too much on her style...and not enough on her substance?  Well, we asked her.  Find out what she said below!

And let us know what you think.  We're getting close to the end!

LKL Blog:  Looking back at your time on Idol, give me a sense of what you’re thinking about?

Siobhan Magnus:  I’m just proud of making it this far.  What an amazing experience it’s been.  I’ve learned so much in such a short amount of time that it’s completely invaluable.  Probably one of the best experiences I’ll have.  It’s unfortunate to leave at this point; I would have loved to gone further.  But you can’t look at it that way; you have to appreciate it for what it is.  

The people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made and the things I’ve learned are some of the hugest, most valuable things to me that I think might ever happen.  I’m just extremely blessed to have gone through this; especially at the time in my life that I did, at this age.  It’s been incredible.

LKL Blog:  You mentioned the friendships – you’re all almost part of an exclusive club.  As the weeks go on, and fewer contestants remain, is it more difficult to say good-bye?  What was that like?

Siobhan:  It gets harder every week.  That’s one more week that you’ve been together every single day.  We’ve become so close, sometimes we’re the only people we see throughout the week, besides the people who work on the show.  And we’re the only people in the whole world, at this time, who know what we’re going through.  So as much as you can talk to your friends and family about it, this group of people are the only ones who understand.  You’ll say something about what happened that day and they’ll know because they did it too.  You develop these bonds, just being able to talk to each other about what’s on your mind regarding the show and the process.  Every morning, we’d be getting ready to go over to the studio and Big Mike [Lynche] would say, “Good morning, family!”  It’s just that – we’re our own little Idol family.

LKL Blog:  Your style, it came up a lot during the show, especially with the comments from the judges.  Did people think or react or focus too much on the style over the substance with you?  Do you think any of that overshadowed who you were as a performer?

Siobhan:  I think at times it may have.  Just because some nights I would get more comments from the judges about my outfit than about my singing.  And I would become frustrated that I didn’t have enough to work with from them.  I didn’t know what I needed to improve vocally because Simon would go off about my outfit being weird.  And that was kind of a bummer that it was standing out more than my vocals.  But I always looked at my performances as a package deal – I needed to express myself visually as well as with my singing. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by: LKL Producer Jason Rovou
Filed under: American Idol • LKL Web Exclusive

It’s Larry King Live’s 25^th anniversary and we want to share with you some of our LKL memories, what it’s like to work on the program and our favorite moments of the past 25 years of history-making television.  During the next few weeks, we’ll be posting blogs from Larry’s staffers as we count down to the program’s 25^th anniversary week, beginning May 31^st.  

Let us know what you think and don’t forget to rate YOUR favorite moments and enter our sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to meet Larry in person!

By LKL Sr. Producer Andrea Beaumont

I am the newbie here at Larry King.  I live in Colorado and one of the first weeks on the job was the craziest. 

Midday, I started to get emails about a boy trapped in a balloon.  I turned on the TV and there was the balloon live on the local news, headed towards Denver.  We quickly learned the family lived nearby in Ft. Collins so I hopped in my car and headed that way.  Swarms of media had gathered outside of the house.  I started talking to worried friends and neighbors.  Police announced that the balloon landed but there was no child inside. 

Hours later the police made a big announcement.  Falcon Heene had been found alive – in the attic of his house.

Shortly thereafter the family came out with Falcon in their arms to announce that everything was ok.  That night the whole family joined us live on the show.  Falcon told the world that the family “did it for the show” and even more craziness ensued.  Richard Heene ended up serving jail time for the stunt. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: LKL 25

We're going to be discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life on tonight's LKL – do aliens exist, and will we ever get to meet them??

Some say they've already been to Earth – and Investigation Discovery put together this list of TOP TEN UFO ENCOUNTERS!

10. Angel Hair of Oloron, France – One afternoon, in October 1952, dozens of witnesses reported seeing a very unusual sight in the sky — a cylinder surrounded by a group of discs, each of which had ribbons of white smoke emanating down from it.

9. Ronald Regans UFO Sighting – In 1974, Ronald Reagan, then governor of California and future U.S. president, mentioned to journalist Norman C. Miller of the Wall Street Journal that he had once seen a UFO.

8. Foo Fighters – Many people know the Foo Fighters as an American rock band, but the name was first used to describe unidentified flying objects frequently spotted by pilots and sailors during World War II.

Check out the other ones HERE – and I bet you can guess what the number one UFO encounter was...

Posted by: LKL Producer Hunter Waters
Filed under: Larry King Live • UFO

In national politics this week, President Obama left D.C. for "Main Street," and Goldman Sachs execs wished the could have left D.C. for - well, anywhere really.

Meanwhile, illegal immigration took center stage.  Arizona passed a new law that will end up in the courts faster than you can swim across the Rio Grande.

And speaking of water...now all eyes are on the Gulf Coast to see how bad the oil spill gets.  Seriously, how hard is it to put a bottle cap back on.

However, as we do every week here on the LKL blog, we want to share some political stories you may have missed:

1. In her new book, Laura Bush suggests that she, her husband, "and several members of their staff may have been poisoned during a visit to Germany," when "they all became mysteriously sick" (New York Times).

2. Chelsea Clinton is asking her father, President Bill Clinton, to lose FIFTEEN POUNDS before her summer nuptials.  That means NO McDonalds. (Politico)

3. So, a Supreme Court Justice walks into a bathroom and sees a U.S. Senator and the senator says.... (The Hill)

4. A-list celebrities are descending upon our nation's capital this weekend to attend what is dubbed as the "Nerd Prom," the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner.  Our fearless host, Larry, will be there – as for the rest, it's easier for you to just click HERE to see who else will be attending the event. (Politico)

5. "I've been sleeping with a teacher for a long time" - Vice President Joe Biden (HuffingtonPost)

Posted by: LKL Producer Eleanor McManus, LKL Producer Hunter Waters
Filed under: Bill Clinton • Joe Biden • Laura Bush • Politics is King • Supreme Court

by Eunice Oh
via people.com

If the tables had been turned during their late-night dispute, Conan O'Brien says he knows what he would – and wouldn't – have done to Jay Leno.

"He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know – I know me, I wouldn't have done that," O'Brien, 47, says in his first post-Tonight Show interview, scheduled to air on 60 Minutes Sunday.

In the interview, the new TBS late-night host tells Steve Kroft that he would not have "surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well – and then … six months later… But that's me, you know."

Adding that "Everyone's got their own, you know, way of doing things," O'Brien, who's been on the road for his 30-date North American tour, says if he had been in Leno's shoes, he would've "done something else, go someplace else."

Leaving NBC, he says, was like severing a "toxic" relationship, especially one he didn't see having a future with.

And though he may have negotiated with the network, O'Brien says he "started to feel that I'm not sure these people even really want me here."

Filed under: Conan O'Brien

Filed under: immigration • Larry King Live

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2oYS9-Ee9U]

We'll be discussing this TONIGHT on LKL – tune in at 9pmeastern!!

Filed under: Larry King Live • UFO

via CSMonitor

The human race could be devastated if aliens were to learn of our existence and venture to Earth, warned British scientist Stephen Hawking on Sunday. But how could extraterrestrials really invade Earth?

Aliens have already viciously attacked our spacecraft, savagely kidnapped us, heartlessly conducted experiments on us, and mercilessly aimed their death-rays at us, but of course, all of these crimes have been committed only in novels and movies.

Other experts who, like Hawking, have devoted their careers to thoughtful exploration of the possibilities of alien contact say that we don't have anything to fear.  "In movies, aliens only come here for two reasons," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) told Life's Little Mysteries, SPACE.com's sister publication. "They either come here to find some resource they don't have on their own planet, or they want to use us for some unauthorized breeding experiment." These scenarios play on our most primal human fears of losing the resources we need to survive or not being able to reproduce, Shostak said.

(Read MORE from the CS Monitor)

NOTE: WE'LL BE DISCUSSING THIS TONIGHT ON LARRY KING LIVE – DO YOU AGREE WITH HAWKING'S BELIEF ABOUT ALIENS? LET US KNOW – WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Filed under: Larry King Live • UFO