Amid the many absurdities of last night’s American Idol finale were the “Golden Idol Awards,†the producers’ way of bringing back the most outrageous contestants of the season. We were, of course, expecting an appearance by our favorite slighted bombshell, Katrina Darrell, a.k.a. bikini girl, the young woman who attended her audition in a revealing two-piece and was famously reprimanded by judge Kara DioGuardi.
When it happened, we wrote the following:
DioGuardi first made sure that viewers knew she wasn’t threatened by Darrell’s beauty before ripping on her singing. But instead of leaving it at that truth, DioGuardi (who had a brief, unsuccessful singing career before moving on to songwriting) demonstrated how the song should be sung, complete with exaggerated arm movements to show scale changes. Hilariously, Darrell then insulted DioGuardi’s version — and DioGuardi looked genuinely peeved.
So we were surprised when, after Ryan announced that Darrell would again be singing her mediocre version of “Vision of Love,†the camera didn’t pan to a shot of DioGuardi rolling her eyes into the back of her head. Instead, about a verse into the shaky song, DioGuardi herself walked out on the stage and started to sing over an annoyed-looking Darrell (who, for the record, was sporting very lovely new chest enhancements). We thought perhaps DioGuardi had redeemed herself at the moment — yes, she was clearly fulfilling some long-held personal dream of performing in front of 30 million people, but we were willing to let her have that if it meant not having to listen to Darrell sing.
It looked like DioGuardi was having fun — which, if you agree with the contestants’ defenses of their stinker performances week after week, is really the whole point of American Idol. But then, after the final note, DioGuardi ripped open her dress to reveal a black bikini and a very toned 37-year-old body. Oh, dear.  Now why would she do that? Ryan called the two over and said that DioGuardi (at that point struggling to cover her nakedness) had done it for charity, over a bet. Oh, come on. After so publicly criticizing Darrell for flaunting her sexuality, DioGuardi chose to do the same thing? We didn’t think, Wow, how great of DioGuardi to strip for charity! We thought, Wow, she must do a lot of Pilates! Not only was it hypocritical — and we’re verging on moralistic here, we know — it was a bad example to all the millions of girls watching. It’s unclear whether DioGuardi’s coming back next season as a judge, but if so, we hope she doesn’t give any repeat performances.
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