NEW YORK – In their own style, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina are the newest duo on the country scene.
Just a week following the season finale of “American Idol,” the teenagers are together doing press like a team — and this team doesn’t roll alone: They’re equipped with publicists, security guards, managers, record label extras and their real bosses — their mothers.
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McCreery, 17, beat Alaina, 16, to become the season 10 champ, but the fact that they are both young country singers with similar goals puts them on the same career track.
Ahead of their “Idol” Top 11 tour – which starts next month – they will visit Nashville to begin prep on their debut albums.
“We’re going to work with the record people down there and get some songs straightened out and hopefully I’ll get to listen to them, get to learn them,” McCreery said.
“American Idol” — the No. 1 rated show on TV — can make you a star, but not all of the show’s winners actually come out on top. Remember Taylor Hicks? What about Ruben Studdard?
Alaina thinks country music fans are what kept her and McCreery in the running.
“Well, country fans are really loyal, so I think that’s why Scotty and I did so good,” she said. “We’re young and so we appeal to a younger crowd, and I think that the combination of those two things really helped us out.”
Kid Rock makes for-real splash, then announces concert
DETROIT – Kid Rock says he’ll be playing a hometown concert at Detroit’s baseball park this summer. That’s not surprising, considering the 40-year-old Detroit-based musician makes a habit of playing local gigs.
It’s how he made the announcement Thursday that was slightly unorthodox.
Rock, Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom and retired Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios used paddle boards to cross the Detroit River to Belle Isle. A bare-footed Rock then strolled to a beachfront microphone and lectern and said he’d be playing Comerica Park Aug. 12 with opening act Sammy Hagar and the Wabos.
Glee’s cheerleading coach to host Emmys
NEW YORK – Get out the megaphone: “Glee” star Jane Lynch will be hosting the Emmy Awards.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced Thursday that Lynch will host “The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards” honoring excellence in prime-time TV. The ceremony will be held at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre and will air Sept. 18 on Fox.
Lynch stars as a megaphone-wielding cheerleading coach who bullies students on the hit Fox series about a high school glee club.
The actress says she’s “tickled pink” to be chosen as Emmy host. The awards show will be executive produced by Mark Burnett of “Survivor” and “Celebrity Apprentice” fame.
The 50-year-old Lynch has won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance as Sue Sylvester on “Glee.”
Actor’s daughter charged
ORLANDO, Fla. – The estranged daughter of actor Billy Bob Thornton has been found guilty in Florida of aggravated manslaughter of a child.
The Orange County State Attorney’s Office says the verdict against 32-year-old Amanda Brumfield was returned Friday. She faced murder charges in the 2008 death of her best friend’s 1-year-old daughter, Olivia Madison Garcia.
She was found not guilty on first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges.
Brumfield claimed the girl hit her head after falling while trying to climb out of a playpen.
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