Idol: Top 8 Girls

We're live and Paula is missing! Uh oh! And I really, really never thought I would say this, but Ryan looks hot in that turtleneck. And I don't mean overheated.

Ah, there's Paula.

OK, on to the girls, and more "things we didn't know" about them...

Jordin is a big football fan, and wanted to play (like her dad, former NY Giant Phillipi Sparks). She sings "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar. It's a little too much song for her, I think, but she does a pretty good job. And she looks really pretty.

Sabrina was a cute and dorky reporter on her high school's television show. She shouts her way through En Vogue's "Don't Let Go". When she sings softer she sings really well, but I don't like the way she screams when she gets higher on the big notes.

Antonella plays violin (about as well as she sings) and teaches violin lessons when she's home from college. It's a Corinne Bailey Rae song for Antonella, and this is more within her range and not too "big", but I'm sorry, UGH. Simon tells her she's gone as far as she can go. In a nice way (for him), Simon mentions the flack that she's taken in the media and commends her on the way she's been handling herself, but points out that that doesn't add up to much when she's surrounded such good singers. Instead of being gracious, she starts feeling entitled again and blows whatever good will Simon was trying to build for her. Will that translate to a loss of votes? Probably not.

Haley was a gymnast - so that's where that killer bod comes from. I have no idea what she's singing...If My Heart Had Wings?...but man it is so LAME. So saccharine and lackluster and really Disney. Simon pulls out the old "ghastly high school talent show performance" critique and then really gets out the big guns and makes a point of how un-memorable she is by telling her that he doesn't even know her name. I understand his point but damn, Simon! That hurts.

Stephanie has been singing since she was 3 years old and that's interesting because...? Oh, and she used to be really shy. OK. She sings "Sweet Thing", by Chaka/Mary J. Blige and she sounds really good, I think, better than last week. I probably like it because I actually know the song. And the judges liker her, too (with a proviso about her "copycat" tendencies).

Lakisha is terrified of animals. The girls really do have far more interesting "secrets" than the guys (for the most part). She looks very pretty, and sings the hell out of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing". Sings it almost exactly the same as Whitney, in fact, yet no warnings about being a copycat. Hmm. Anyway, she brung it. She also brung her Auntie and her Mommy, who embarrass the heck out of her by "acting out" in the front row.

Gina - Her secret is that she carries around lucky charms - not the magically delicious kind, although that would cool - but a tiny troll doll and some little green stuffed thing called Pickle. She makes a VERY smart move and sings an Evanescence song, and sets herself apart from the divas, which I think guarantees her a spot in the Top 12.

Melinda has OCD. Aren't all the great artists a little crazy? She sings that song from the Enjoli ads of the 70s, "Because I'm a Woman". How many ways can you say great? Well, however many ways there are, you could apply them all to Melinda and it still wouldn't be enough to describe how freakin awesome she is.

Tonight, 8:00 P.M., 2 guys and 2 girls go home, leaving us with our Top 12. Oh, and the big AI announcement, too.