Artsandentertainment: Sideshow

THIS TIME VOTING COSTS ABOUT $4.50: It turns out that Simon Cowell wasn't joking when he said that the debut singles of American Idol winner Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken would be released on the same day.

After initially announcing that Studdard's single, Flying Without Wings/Superstar, would be out June 3 and Aiken's, Bridge Over Troubled Water/This is the Night, would be out today, the record company that oversees the singers' respective labels quietly changed its plan and decided to relase both today. When the Atlanta Journal-Constitution went looking for an explanation, the company, BMG, didn't return its calls. But why should BMG comment on the obvious? The dual release creates an opportunity for maximum hype. And maximum sales.

Given that relatively few votes separated Studdard and Aiken at Idol's end, and that many fans have complained about the voting process, BMG effectively set up another head-to-head final. Except this time fans vote with money. And the winner is the first one to the top of the Billboard hot 100 singles chart.

THAT'S NOT ALL: Also released today is the debut album of Justin Guarini, the runner-up in the first Idol season. There's a good chance few people would have paid attention to the album, scintillatingly titled Justin Guarini, if BMG hadn't whipped up another bout of Idolmania.

ISN'T THAT SWEET? NO: Sign that the latest Bachelor couple, Andrew Firestone and Jen Schefft, could be together past the Fourth of July:

To keep in touch between the end of filming and the airing of the show's finale, they had special phone lines installed at their homes. And they were able to meet twice, in Palm Springs, Calif., and Lake Geneva, Wis., Schefft told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sign that they could be at different July Fourth barbecues trashing each other: Schefft is moving into Firestone's San Francisco home with him and his roommate. The Chronicle reported that Firestone sounded concerned when told that keeping the roommate around wasn't a good idea. "Well, it's only temporary, until we figure some things out," he said.

"PRIMARY COLORS' WAS BAD ENOUGH: Now that all the juicy stuff in Hillary Clinton's book is out, the A&E network has decided that it has to make a movie about the former first lady. And use someone else's book.

The planned two-hour saga, to cover the White House years and all their juicy stuff, is to be based on Hillary's Choice by Gail Sheehy. A&E wants to do it this year, but it doesn't have a script, a director or a cast.

"The finished screenplay will give us a good idea of which actors can find the voice of these characters," programming VP Robert DeBitetto told the Hollywood Reporter, momentarily forgetting that he was talking about a trashy TV movie and not a production of Henry V.

The hot gossip is that only one woman is on the list to play Hillary: Sharon Stone. An amateur casting director we know says that Rebecca De Mornay is a better choice, because she looks more like Hillary and needs the paycheck more than Stone.

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