Yes, more news about American Idol!  Amidst swirling rumours of who will be on the judging panel for the next season of the show, Paula Abdul’s name has come up.  Unfortunately for her she can’t be a judge, reports E! Online.

A source said that Abdul is locked into the upcoming American version of the U.K’s Got to Dance and is contractually prohibited from appearing on any other competition show for quite some time.  I guess that’s what you get for signing a seven-figure contract with a huge network (not that she should be complaining).

“If Paula did Idol she would get sued big-time by Viacom,” the source says, continuing that Abdul’s contract with the CBS-produced Got to Dance is for “about five years.”

Producer Nigel Lythgoe is returning to Idol and despite him possibly wanting to bring back an original judge he says, “I love Paula,” but continues, “Paula is under contract to another company so she is unavailable.”

Bad news for anyone hoping to see the crazy outspoken Paula Abdul back on the show!

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For the second week in a row, So You Think You Can Dance judges cut someone because of injury, not poor performance.  Ashley Galvan was cut from the competition Thursday night because of her cracked rib, reports People.com.

As she was asked to set forward as part of the bottom three contestants for the week, Judge Nigel Lythgoe explained that he had talked with Ashley’s doctors and they had determined she would need at least three weeks off to recover from her injury.  She must have seen it coming, but the dancer still broke into tears while thanking her fans.

“I feel like I wasn’t ready to go,” she told People.com.  “It sucks.”

Judge Mia Michaels said that Ashley could have gone far in the competition and was a contender to win—not great news for the show.  Last week Alex Wong, the clear favourite to win the competition, was cut from the show due to a serious injury to his Achilles tendon.

With top dancers being axed for reasons not relating to their dancing abilities, it’s a real question whether the most talented dancers will be the last ones standing or not.

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While executive producer of the hit reality show So You Think You Can Dance, Nigel Lythgoe, has been fluttering around the news that the show’s upcoming season would see big changes for some time now, it is only recently that those changes have been revealed.

Here’s the low-down according to E! Online.com:

Each week, the dance contestants will be partnered with a So You Think You Can Dance All-Star, basically meaning that favourite dancers from past seasons will be back. The All-Stars will be put into a “pool,” as Lythgoe called it, and that is how partners and dance styles will be determined. “Instead of drawing the genre of dance out of a hat, contestants will draw a photograph of one of the All-Stars, and that will dictate the genre that they will be dancing,” Lythgoe told E! Online.

Other changes: instead of a top 20 dancers out of the Las Vegas boot camp week, it will only be a top 10. And each week, it will only be one dancer going home, not two. Each top 10 contestant will get a different All-Star (and therefore different genre of dance) every week. After the performance, the All-Star will exit the stage, leaving just the contestant left to face the judging panel.

“This will be the first time ever, apart from their solos, that they will walk forward alone to be judged,” Lythgoe said.

To pick the All-Stars, Lythgoe points out that it depends on their best dance style. “They had to be dominant in their genre, because they are the ones who are going to dictate what competitors are going to dance,” he said. He used hip-hop/break dancer Stephen “Twitch” Boss, the season-four runner-up, as an example. “You wouldn’t want to do ballroom with him, particularly.”

Lythgoe wouldn’t say who the All-Stars are, but said he will be revealing them one at a time via his Twitter account (@dizzyfeet) over the next few weeks.

And while there are some big changes to the show, some things will stay the same. For example, America will still vote to decide the bottom three contestants, and the judges will still have them “dance for their lives” with solo performances. And the always crazy Mary Murphy will still be on the judging panel, and this year she’s choreographing too. Together with guest judges, Lythgoe said, there will sometimes be four people on the panel.

And now that Paula Abdul is out of a judging job on American Idol, is she heading to SYTYCD?

“I can’t think of anybody better than Paula Abdul to judge on this show,” Lythgoe said. “Whether it’s the right time for her is up to her and her management. I certainly would love her at any point, even if it means having five bloody judges on the show!”

The two-hour season premiere comes to you on May 27.

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La Toya Jackson has expressed an interest in replacing Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol when the Brit steps down at the end of this season, reports TMZ.

Jackson and Nigel Lythgoe, the show’s producer, reportedly discussed the possibility of her making a guest appearance on the show at a recent housewarming party in Bel Air for Kathy Hilton.

“I would love to be a judge on American Idol,” said Jackson. “I would love to have a chance for the public to get to know the real me. I would be thrilled.”

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Katie Holmes’ performance on So You Think You Can Dance has not received much praise, according to E! Online. The actress performed an homage to Judy Garland choreographed by Tyce Diorio Thursday night on the reality show.

“I am f***ing INSULTED, Katie Holmes how dare you!,” Shanna Moakler wrote on Twitter. “I didn’t just grow up on musicals, I lived and breathed them, Oklahoma, Easter Parade, Family Band, don’t touch my legends! You’re not worthy.”

So You Think You Can Dance judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is angry about the negative reactions. He took to his Twitter to retaliate: “Why hate on Katie? She’s had no dance training and did this for publicity for the charity. Everyone lip synchs when they’re dancing. I’m going to ban all the Katie haters. You make me sick. Your attitude stops ‘stars’ doing charity work. Understand why she did it CHILDREN. I’m trying to figure out why Katie is being judged as a dancer. When a star throws out the opening pitch, no one says ‘Ooh, crap pitcher!’”

Holmes did the performance to show her support for the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a charity intended to support, improve and increase access to dance education in the United States. The charity was founded this year by Holmes, Lythgoe, director Adam Shankman and Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

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As E! online so eloquently puts it, “For So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe, there is no dancing around the issue.”

After defending his allegedly homophobic remarks via Twitter on Friday, Lythgoe has officially issued an apology at the urging of gay rights group GLAAD.

“I sincerely regret the fact that I have upset people with the poor word choices and comments I made both during the taping of theSo You Think You Can Dance audition and on my personal status update,” said Lythgoe. “I am not homophobic and it was extremely upsetting for me to be classed as such.”

The “I’m sorry” comes as the result of comments made by the judge during an audition by same-sex dance partners Misha Belfer and Mitchel Kibel, as well as his continuing justification of his actions online the following day.

On Thursday’s premiere, Lythgoe critiqued the duo’s samba, saying ”We’ve always had the guys dance together on the show, but they’ve never really done it in each other’s arms before. I’d like to see you both dancing with a girl.”

As if GLAAD wasn’t already up in arms, Lythgoe then tweeted about the controversy, comparing the dancers to two separate films. “The same-sex ballroom guys did remind me of Blades of Glory. However, I’m not a fan of Brokeback ballroom.”

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An injury has changed the line-up of Top 10 dancers on “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Jessica King has suffered a mysterious injury that is said to need five weeks to heal. She will be replaced by B-girl Comfort Fedoke, who was the last female voted off the show.

In a press release, producer Nigel Lythgoe stated “how sorry I am that Jessica cannot continue dancing in the competition at the advice of her doctor. Her full recovery is paramount and will only come with rest. We are fortunate that Comfort has agreed to rejoin the competition and know that under the circumstances she has Jessica’s full support.” He said he could not reveal the nature of the injury, but that King herself would speak about it on a later episode.

This week, America’s voted will determine who leaves the competition.

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