Now here’s an interesting story:

Last week, a glitch in the Apple software allowed fans a glimpse at which contestants are selling the most “Idol” downloads — studio versions of the contestants’ live performances — on iTunes each week.

iTunes sales figures have long been kept secret at the insistence of “Idol” producers, who were concerned that sales figures might give away the relative rankings in the popular votes …

Not suprisingly, the leader — by far — is front-runner Adam Lambert, who holds six of the top 10 spots in the Idol chart this season. The haunting “Mad World”– the song that got Simon Cowell on his feet for a rare standing ovation — is the No. 1-selling song so far this year, the iTunes site showed.

But right behind Lambert is Allen, who has three performance downloads on the secret chart. Gokey has just one, his version of “Endless Love” at No. 9. Allen’s slow version of “Falling Slowly” from movie night is No. 3. His bluesy update on the classic “Ain’t No Sunshine” is No. 8 and his tender “To Make You Feel My Love” took the No. 10 spot.

Of COURSE my precious Adam is number one, but I’ve long been bored by Danny Gokey. I think he’s a great guy with a great voice, but week after week I find myself checking my Twitter account during his performances — I’m just not interested. Kris, on the other hand, is slowly starting to worm his way into my heart. I loved him last week, and I finally started to see why he was still around. I also looooove Allison Iraheta, but I know she probably won’t win this thing — which is probably better in the long run for her career, anyway.

Anyway.

What I find the most interesting?

Is that Idol ‘scandal’ stories always seem to break the same day the show’s scheduled to air.

This video was forwarded to us by a Croatian reader. Here, a contestant named Leo Pavlacic, who is known for his interesting performances, “sings” his version of Britney’s “Womanizer” on a Croatian show that’s kind of like their version of American Idol.

In addition to the creative use of shamwow’s to make a vest/mane thingy, I love the put-my-crotch-in-the-judge’s-face move at about 0:55. (I can’t tell whether she likes it or not.)

Enjoy!

After American Idol opted to have only two of the judges weigh in on each contestant last week, the outrage among fans was heard ’round the world, and it didn’t miss the ears of the production company. This week, the judging will be back to normal, with all four judges weighing in on each contestant. And there’ll be the same number of contestants this week as last — thanks to the Matt Giraud save last week — so everyone’s just going to have to act like an adult professional rather than an eager schoolchild and keep their comments in the allotted time. I’ll be interested to see how that works out for these four gigantic egos who just happen to be attached to human bodies.

Meanwhile, E! asked readers which judge they could live without. The results were not at all surprising:

Kara DioGuardi, 44.3 percent
Paula Abdul, 35.7 percent
Randy Jackson, 17.4 percent
Simon Cowell, 2.6 percent

No one likes Kara. No one was ever going to like Kara. There was nothing that anyone could have done to make us like Kara. Kara is basically just Paula with less valium in her system. They should have gotten Janice Dickinson or something (who will, for the record, be appearing on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Outta Here! this summer).

But I am surprised that Paula is considered more dispensable than Randy. Don’t get me wrong, I like Randy Jackson, but he and Kara are definitely the most boring of the judges. I mean, I don’t care what Randy says, because he’s just going to be reasonable and relatively polite about it. He’s not going to tell me anything I didn’t already know. But Paula? You just never know what will slur out of that vodka-soaked mouth of hers. It’s always a surprise! And it’s never really a sentence! I would miss Paula way more than Randy.

So I’ve always thought it was kind of bullshit when the judges criticize the outfits of the AI contestants, because we all know those bitches have stylists. I guess whether they choose to listen to them or not is their own decision. But Film.com‘s Natalie Broulette sat down with Miles Siggins and Soyon An, the Idol stylists, for a chat about what goes into getting these kids stage-ready, and what their personal styles are like.

Natalie Broulette: What’s the collaborative process with the contestants like?

Miles Siggins: We discuss what they’re singing and what they think they’d like to wear, and we start from there. Even if people have a general idea about what they want to wear, it does kind of change once we go shopping. And because it’s a competition, it’s totally up to the guys what they want to wear. I can’t force them to wear anything.

Soyon An: The way I work with the girls is I kind of pull aside a few looks that would be good for them, so that we can make the most of the two-hour shopping time. They come in with their idea based on their song choice or whatever they had in mind, and then we do fittings. Whatever we don’t find in the fitting, whether it be a pair of pants, shoes or accessories, we go out and shop for.

And as for when the judges talk shit about the outfits? Stylist Miles weighs in on that: “The main person that criticizes is Simon, and I think a man who wears a gray v-neck sweater and jeans and boots should concentrate on commenting on things he knows about. He’s a very savvy man, but I don’t think fashion is one of his strong points.”

You can check out the full interview here.

I’m sorry, but I’m shamelessly obsessed with Adam Lambert. I lovelovelooooove him. I love any little piece of news I can get on him. I want him to be my life partner. MTV News has an interesting piece today about Adam’s potential future on Broadway, and the way Broadway views all Idol contestants:

Lambert was on the short list to potentially play the lead in the Broadway Spider-Man musical “Turn Off the Dark,” which will feature music by U2′s Bono and The Edge, according to casting director Bernie Telsey.

“We started working on ‘Spider-Man’ a year and a half ago, and [Lambert is] someone we know because we cast him in ‘Wicked’ and knew he had that kind of range,” Telsey said of the San Diego-bred singer, who has 17 years of experience on the stage, including a stint in a 2004 musical version of “The Ten Commandments” opposite Val Kilmer. “I’ve not seen him do those styles as much as I’ve seen him now on ‘American Idol.’ And he was someone we looked after about seven months ago, but he told us then that he was already in the ‘American Idol’ process and not available. So he’s definitely somebody that we would have auditioned, just because we know him and see him for a lot of shows. … Let him go win, and then he can come and replace Spider-Man a year after the run. He’d be great.”

Dude. I would totally fly my ass to NYC to check out Adam Lambert on Broadway. And that is sooo not my style normally.

Another casting director talks more generally about the burgeoning relationship between American Idol and Broadway:

Jay Binder, another veteran Broadway casting director who helped Hudson win an Academy Award by casting her in the movie version of “Dreamgirls,” said many “Idol” veterans have succeeded on Broadway because they have shown the work ethic needed to perform eight shows a week and draw fans at a time when box office is down and few new major musical-theater stars are being minted.

“I’m very thrilled for what could happen with this young man, because if he succeeds in this media, we have another male musical-theater star, and we need every one we can get,” said Binder, who cautioned that he’d have to have Lambert come in for an audition to see what the singer’s range is. “I have my fingers crossed for him climbing buildings and weaving webs some day.”

“We watch every week to see who’s going to lose so we can cast them in a Broadway show,” Telsey said. “Seriously, because they’re talented people who just didn’t have agents. … Look at Fantasia. She blew the house down in ‘Color Purple.’ … What was so wonderful about her in that show is she doesn’t even sing until the end of Act 1. And the whole time you’re watching, asking, ‘Who is this incredible actress onstage?,’ and she had never done it.”

Ooooh! I want Adam on Broadway! I want him on TV! I want him on the radio! I want him on my body! I LOVE YOU, ADAM!

Update: FremantleMedia made YouTube pull the clip. But you can watch it here.

If you’re anything like me, you were absolutely devastated last night when Adam Lambert’s American Idol performance was cut off by your DVR. Because he is your fantasy man, despite the fact that he’s hopelessly gay, and because the show ran eight minutes over. EIGHT MINUTES! How does that even happen? You’ve been doing this for eight seasons, Idol producers. No one over there has any capacity to keep their eye on the clock? Totally unacceptable. Maybe fewer commercials next time, eh?

Adam was — in what’s becoming something of a pattern, and I doubt accidentally — the final contestant to perform. His entire performance went un-recorded by TiVos and DVRs everywhere.

So here’s my question: Is this going to impact Adam in the voting? Obviously a lot of us headed straight to the Internet to find a clip of Adam’s performance — there’s one above, if you want it — but not everyone’s so tech-savvy, or has an Internet connection at home. Will people fail to vote for Adam because they didn’t get to watch him? Are they going to address it all on the show tonight? I’m very very curious.

Oh, Adam. I thought my days of crushes on gay men were over once I got over Reichen Lehmkuhl (okay, I’m not really over him, but we’re making progress), but I’ve fallen for you soooo hard! I LOVE YOU, ADAM!!!