andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Actress Zooey Deschanel has completed her first album with the producing help of folk singer M. Ward.

Ward, who met Deschanel on the set of the upcoming film, “The Go Getter,” told AVclub.com that he was extremely impressed by Dechanel’s original songs. “I was amazed by the quality… I just had an incredible time working with her. She’s an amazing talent, and a genius vocalist… I’m looking forward to people hearing this record.”

Ward isn’t the only person Deschanel has impressed with her pipes. She will be playing Janis Joplin in the upcoming biopic “The Gospel According To Janis.” She has previously sung onscreen in films like “Elf,” “Winter Passing,” and in the short film that marked Julia Stiles’ directorial debut, “Raving.” Deschanel also lent her voice to several tracks on Jason “Coconut Records” Schwartzman’s solo album, “Nighttiming.”

Look for Deschanel’s album to be released later this year.

After a long two hours, the winner of “American Idol” was finally revealed to be Taylor Hicks.

The winner was announced during a two hour long broadcast, in which past and present idols and idol-wannabes performed. As well, the show featured a number of guest performers including Meat Loaf, Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Dionne Warwick and Prince.

When asked what he wanted to say to his fans, Hicks yelled “Soul Patrol!”

On Tuesday night’s performance show, Hicks seemed to walk away with performing the best over McPhee. Two out of the three of his performances were considered excellent by the judges, while McPhee got one excellent, one poor and one was just okay.

Over 63.4 million votes came in for the finale, more than any votes received by any president in American history, host Ryan Seacrest said.