Jackie Tohn, on her new record, 'Beguiling,' and life after 'Idol'

Jackie Tohn has been an actor since she was 9 and a musician since she was 20. But all that time in the limelight didn't do her any favors on this season of "American Idol." In fact, it might have even hurt her. After making the Top 36, Jackie was soon eliminated -- a fact she attributes, at least in part, to her Hollywood pedigree.

It's counterintuitive, but Jackie says having a few credits to your name can actually work against you on "Idol." Thanks to her impressive resume, when Jackie first appeared on the show, many in the blogosphere wrote her off as a plant. The fact that she had appeared in a Fox series -- "On the Lot" -- only fueled rumors. But during a phone interview Tuesday, Jackie insisted, "I didn't know anybody directly at 19 or directly at 'Idol,' ... I waited in line just like everybody else." 

She sees her professional experience as a "double-edged sword." Even though by Hollywood standards Jackie considers herself "definitely not by any means an A, B, or C-list actor," by "Idol" standards, she has already made it. And that's not a good thing. "The show loves to kind of build you from the ground up," explained Jackie.

But even though Jackie did not last long on the series, it was still a great boon to her career. "My MySpace kind of has doubled and my Facebook and all that stuff," she acknowledged. And although Jackie is not an A-lister yet, she does have some A-list fans. "Nicole Richie Twittered that she saw me in Starbucks!" exclaimed a starstruck Jackie. And Ashton Kutcher is also a fan. Jackie's growing fan base will be happy to know her new album, "Beguiling," is now available on iTunes.

As she gushed about the album, Jackie began to spell out the word "beguiling" for me, but then stopped herself with that infectious laugh. "Oh, you're a reporter. You probably know how to spell that. But most of America doesn't," she pointed out, before confessing, "I didn't before I did the album!"

The Rushfield Review: The Top 12 takes shape

All will be revealed is the promise of many a current television epic, but Wednesday night’s "American Idol" featured enough curtain lifting to keep the online Idolsphere’s collective head whirling for a year.

Not only did we, as expected, fill out the final slots in the Top 9 (with the predictable Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds -- pictured at left on Tuesday's show -- and Jorge Nuñez) but the most puzzled-over mystery of the season was finally cleared up: The identities of the wild card contestants were unveiled.

Actually, this was the first truly suspenseful results show thus far.  While the sudden death element of each week of the semifinal rounds raised the stakes immensely, the contests ended up completely lopsided, with at least two of the three weekly chairs almost certain to go to the huge favorites (Danny Gokey, Alexis Grace, Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta, MacIntyre, Rounds).  Due to whatever quirk of fate, the distance between the favorites and the field each week has been a mile.

On the flip side, each results show, we have been treated to the spectacle of those many, many who had fallen in their performance nights, trotted out to the death couch -- a grim march to  certain execution. It was, for instance, beyond tragic to watch the once-effervescent but now utterly deflated 16-year-old Arianna Afsar, whose trembling lips and tear-stained eyes gave no doubt she knew what exactly Angel of Death Ryan Seacrest had in store for her, forced to tell the Reaper, “Obviously, I have regrets.”

Thinking about what kind of Top 12 this season’s altered format will produce, it can be said that the above favorites would likely have made it to the big stage in any season in which they appeared, while the jury is very much still out on the remaining three (Nuñez, Michael Sarver and Kris Allen).

Handicapping the winners - The Top 36

Only a fool would try to predict the ultimate outcome of American Idol without having seen all the contestants.  But these times make fools of us all.  So try I must. My complete tip sheet will be coming soon, but before too much time expires I wanted to go on the record with my predictions of who will win and who will lose and in what order.   Last year, I predicted Syesha would win it all, so that should show what my track record is worth.  In any event, for the historical record, here is my prediction from first place to 36th where the brave souls of Season 8 will finish.   

(Of course the order of finish for contestants eliminated in the semi-final rounds has little real meaning since we do not know the order of finish at those levels, but let these rankings represent my rough sense of where in the Idol firmament they stand.)

36. Nathaniel Marshall

35. Nicholas Mitchell

34. Matt Beizke

33. Jeanine Valies

32. Casey Carlson

31. Stevie Wright

30. Felicia Barton

29. Alex Wagner-Trugman

28. Tatiana Del Toro

27. Ricky Braddy

26. Allison Iraheta

25. Brent Keith

24. Von Smith

23. Kristen McNamara

22. Jackie Tohn

21. Junot Joyner

20. Arianna Afsar

19. Ann Marie Boskovitch

18. Kendall Beard

17. Jasmine Murray

16. Steven Fowler

15. Kai Kalama

14. Kris Allen

13. Anoop Desai

And to see my Top 12, continue after the jump.

Phil Stacey Blog: Out of the gate

I’d like to briefly discuss what makes performing on "American Idol" so difficult.  Until last season, contestants did not use monitors.  It was near impossible to hear yourself sing.  If you do not understand, get in your car and turn the radio as loud as you possibly can and try to sing along.  It’s hard.  Every special guest that comes to sing brings in a monitoring system so they can perform to the best of their abilities.  The contestants do not get that edge.

Add onto that the knowledge that Simon will eventually cut you down in front of millions of people.  It doesn’t matter if you are Kelly, Carrie, or even David Cook, no one has ever gone without being insulted by Simon..  No one.

On to tonight’s performances…   When I saw the list of contestants, I felt like the producers kind of stacked the deck.  A lot of them who sang tonight have been featured a great deal in previous episodes.  However, there are only three that I have predicted to be finalists: Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai, and Alexis Grace… I am pleased to say they all delivered. 

Surprises – Tatiana Del Toro.  I looked down while she was singing and what I heard took me by surprise.  She can sing!  Suddenly, I look up and see this attractive young girl who is not butchering a Whitney song!  Unbelievable.  I’m starting to like this girl… Ha!

I felt bad for a couple of singers tonight, Stevie Wright in particular.  This poor girl was ripped!  I have definitely been there.  I wish I could say don’t worry about it, but giving a bad performance on "Idol" is the kiss of death to your music career -– unless you get a chance to perform again to make up for it.  I can’t imagine her getting that chance.

If you aren’t tuning in this season, you are missing out.  This season is full of characters, and they are good!  It’s almost like it was casted.  Definitely my favorite season so far -– not to diss last season.  They were great too…

My picks:  Of course, Danny, Anoop, and Alexis… possibly Tatiana.  We’ll see how I do.

On a side note:  I visited Disney World last week for the premiere of the American Idol Experience.  It was a blast!  And Carrie Underwood and David Cook sang a duet together.  David held his own – no joke!  He was incredible!

-- Phil Stacey

photo:Fox

Ann Powers: Putting away the chair

Two hours' worth of teasing, and all we got was one legitimate surprise. I'm talking about Jamar Rogers getting booted off, not Tatiana Del Toro, who's already water-cooler conversation gold, being granted a stay. As anyone who's seen "Dead Man Walking" well knows, executions make for higher drama when they're drawn out.

Tonight's "American Idol" was a long way from reality television at its best. Here's what was missing: actual suspense; any real insight into the judges' decisions (though most choices were stunningly obvious); and, oh yeah, music. We knew we wouldn't get much of the latter during this, the "chair" episode, which always captures heartbreak and delight in sobs and mad hopping, not Diane Warren songs.

Yet if we must endure all this faux tension over the judges' decisions, couldn't there have been some mention of what makes an "Idol" voice viable? Simon kept repeating that it's all about the mix, the judges look for certain things, it's more than just raw talent, yadda yadda yadda. But I didn't catch many specifics, beyond Paula chiming in that welder Matt Breitzke is "likable" (as opposed to Michael Sarver, the Manwich? As if they weren't going to let the next Dierks Bentley through!) and everybody getting on Awesome Adam Lambert's case about being a musical theater geek.

Let's go back to Jamar, the perfectly nice, obviously gifted guy holding Danny Gokey up through every round. What was his failing? Was it his Andre 3000-style wardrobe? The precision of his vocal style, which reflected a harmony singer's humility more than a lead's bravado? The teardrop tattoo on his cheek? That irritating Jason Mraz-style twist he gave the Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah" at the Kodak? We'll never know. I suspect that the producers just wanted to make the recently bereaved Gokey feel more alone without his BFF nearby, so he might wallow in both grief and survivor''s guilt, and get those ratings up.

Jamar deserved a sing-off, at least. I'm sure he could have triumphed over Norman Gentle/Nick Mitchell, whose not-that-hilarious schtick might eventually prove as disruptive to the "Idol" flow as Tatiana's sobbing fits.

Rushfield Review: 36 singers to lead us

The season of tears and atonement behind us, at last we know whose names have been written in the Book of Life.  After half a year of wandering the desert, Idol Nation has at last found the 36 warriors who will lead us forward.  

In the Shinto religion, the afterlife is a process of the soul losing its individuality, merging with a common ancestor god.  For the past five weeks (of TV time -- six months offscreen time), these 36 have completed the reverse of this process, gaining their individuality and thus achieving immortality. Through sheer exercise of personal will they  rose forth from the featureless human tide that poured into the stadiums to answer the Idol call.  A mere three weeks ago, they were one in the very-hard-to-keep-track-of parade of stories and song snippets who nervously shuffled before the judges. Just last week, they were among the scores of cannon fodder sent storming the Omaha Beach of Hollywood Week. 

And now, when the smoke clears, the brave survivors who walk forward (doing the Top 36 dance at the end of the show) come forth as heroes, each (or almost each) finally a person in their own right, with their own trail of tears, their own musical style and, beginning tonight, their own fanbase.  Before tonight, they were one of some tens of thousands, hundreds or scores of hopeless.  From here on in, their names will forever be remembered when in years to come we huddle around the fire and tell stories of Season Eight.  And forever shall their images hang in that sacred hall of immortals -– the contestants galleries on Americanidol.com.

There is little drama more harrowing in our culture than the Green Mile episode -– so dubbed for its resemblance to the solitary walk prisoners must take to their execution.  Having been brought to the very precipice of realizing a life beyond their wildest dreams, with greatness hanging in the balance against banishment and a return to eternal anonymity -- at that very point are they forced to walk alone to receive their fate, the moment dangled out endlessly by the tormenting judges (in a plushly upholstered “judges’ mansion” chosen, it seems, to give the sense of being received in an audience on Mt. Olympus).

Meet Your Top 36: The List

Here they are, with links to more info.  Somewhere in the column below, is the name of our next champion.

Kris Allen
Arianna Asfar
Kendall Beard
Anne Marie Boskovich
Ricky Braddy
Matt Breitzke
Casey Carlson
Megan Corkrey
Tatiana Del Toro
Anoop Desai
Stephen Fowler
Matt Giraud
Danny Gokey
Alexis Grace
Mishavonna Henson
Allison Iraheta
Junot Joyner
Kai Kalama
Brent Keith
Adam Lambert
Jesse Langseth
Nate Marshall
Scott MacIntyre
Kristen McNamara
Nick Mitchell
Jasmine Murray
Jorge Nunez
Joanna Pacitti
Lil Rounds
Michael Sarver
Von Smith
Jackie Tohn
Alex Wagner Trugman
Taylor Vaifanua
Jeanine Vailes
Stevie Wright

--Richard Rushfield

Photo:Fox

The Contenders: Meet Jackie Tohn

"American Idol" Season 8 contestant Jackie Tohn greeted the panel in New York with her signature quirky-cool style, "What up with the what-ups?" she asked, then went on to a unique song and dance number of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." Paula told the seasoned singer she's "unpredictable, and surprising, and it's all good." While Simon reprimanded the young hopeful for asking Kara some advice about what direction to take, he gave her a yes, which made it four, and to Hollywood she went.

The Silver Lake, Calif., 27-year-old actress and musician grew up in New York and moved to L.A. after high school to pursue her acting career. Check out more on her MySpace page and her official website. She's had small parts in various television shows over the years but is hoping "Idol" will be her big break. Jackie Tohn wants to share what she's got, and we're listening.

--Leslie Anne Wiggins

Idoltracker Review: Hurray for Hollywood Week

“I want this more than anything. It’s under my skin and it bursts out when I’m on stage.”

The immortal words of Nathaniel Marshall, American Idol Hollywood Week aspirant, are a fitting tribute to what is the most exciting week of the most important program in entertainment.

Along the American Idol trail -- a slow, arduous climb up an increasingly steep cliff -- Hollywood Week represents a sudden detour into a demolition derby.  For the rest of the season, contestants will be executed at a gentlemanly once-a-week pace (or a bit more in the Top 36 rounds), but for this one segment, death does not take a stately stroll across the Idol set, but rampages across, a rabid dog unleashed seeking to bury his fangs in any victim at hand.

As the curtain rose on the Kodak stage -- the platform where Sparks and Underwood received their coronation -- we saw 147 young hopefuls, plucked from absolute obscurity and dropped at the gates of immortality.  By the end of the night, 43 of their number, a full quarter, had been cast out and told that the kingdom would never be theirs.  They have been called forth from the seas of people who flooded America’s stadiums for a chance at this dream; astounded to be 1 of 147 chosen out of tens of thousands.  But for most of those, the gates of the kingdom are as close as they will ever come.  And this is the drama of Hollywood Week.

Phil Stacey Blog: Welcome to Hollywood

Hollywood is my new favorite part of the "American Idol" season.  I remember how awesome it was to be there, watching all the other people sing and trying to guess which contestants would become finalists.

The episode starts with Ryan introducing the Kodak Theatre, which is where the finale is generally held.  Almost 150 people have made it this far.

The contestants are split into two groups.  One group goes sightseeing, and the other stays to perform. 

On the first day of my own "Hollywood Week," I was in the sightseeing group. We did all kinds of cool things, including previewing "The Simpsons" movie.  Many friends were made and it was a joyous occasion for all.

Back at the theater, Lil Rounds is the first to perform.  She’s amazing and you can bet that we’ll see her again.  I would be SHOCKED if Lil Rounds doesn’t make it through Hollywood.

Several contestants are shown making it through the first day, but the ones I’d like to focus on are Von Smith and Nick Mitchell.  Von is the guy with the extraordinary vocal range.  After he sings, Simon tells him it is indulgent nonsense.  I can tell immediately that not only will he make it through, but he also will go pretty far because Simon is making people sympathetic toward him.

Norman Gentle — or Nick Mitchell, whoever he is — goes next and his schtick is getting a little old for me.  But there is no justice in the world and he makes it through.  I hope he comes out and just nails his song next time because I do like the guy — you kind of have to, you know?