By Mary Cavaliere

Wednesday night's auditions took place in Charleston, South Carolina. Out of 10,000 contestants only 23 made it to Hollywood. There were a lot of NO's from the three judges and I was feeling their pain. There was no one person that really stood out in my opinion. My favorite of the night, however, was London Weidberg from Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. How often do you get to see a young person emulate Billie Holiday these days?

The judges confused me a couple of times. They said "no" to two or three vocalists that were no worse than some of the others they put through. Lindsey Goodman, the air force pilot from Charleston, South Carolina had a decent voice. Rasharde Henderson, the "black Clay Aiken" had a very strong voice as well. Granted they aren't going to win the competition, but neither was the majority of talent from Charleston that they put through to Hollywood. Go figure.

There weren't too many weird acts but there sure were a lot of angry and argumentative personalities at this audition. Aretha Codner from Buffalo, New York and Joshua Boson from Beaufort, South Carolina had the audacity to argue with the judges about their level of talent (which was non-existant). Joshua accused American Idol of being "faked and rigged" and in response Simon accused Joshua of being "rude and delusional". Oh well, so much for southern hospitality!

I guess the catch-phrase for the season is Simon's "I don't think you're as good as YOU think you are." He has said this on three of the four episodes already, and we're only seeing a snippet of his brutally honest feedback for the night.

The high-light of this episode was Oliver Highman from Cornelius, North Carolina. He had a nice voice but definitely needed some training to sooth an out of control vibrato and to work his higher register better, which definitely had potential. Even when the judges told him "no" he politely asked if they wanted to meet his baby boy who had just been delivered 24 hours earlier. When everyone was done admiring the little bundle of joy, Oliver shook hands with all three judges and said, "Good luck this season". Now THAT'S a Southern Gentleman!




You can read more of Mary's television blogs at www.myspace.com/italiangirl57