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Tampa singer advances to 'American Idol' final 12
By Times staff writer, Times wires
Published March 10, 2005
American Idol is down to its final 12, and the group includes Jessica Sierra of Tampa.
Sierra, 19, advanced to the last round of competition Wednesday night after veiwers were as impressed as the three judges by her performance Tuesday of (The Boys Are) Back in Town - not the Thin Lizzy song but one with that title by the cult fave 1980s rock 'n' roll group the Bus Boys. (The song was in the 48 Hrs. movies.)
The four contestants who got the lowest numbers of what host Ryan Seacrest said were an Idol-best 120-million viewer votes cast and were ejected were: Amanda Avila, 23, of Las Vegas, a 2003 Star Search loser who sang River Deep, Mountain High; Janay Castine, 17, a senior at Peachtree Ridge High School in Lawrenceville, Ga., who did Selena's Dreaming of You; Nikko Smith, 22, of Town & Country, Mo., the son of Hall of Fame baseball player Ozzie Smith, who performed Georgia On My Mind; and Travis Tucker, 21, of Manassas, Va., a math education major at the University of Virginia who did Bobby Brown's Every Little Step.
Six women and six men made the final round, which begins next week with Idol cutting back from three weekly shows to two.
All 12 will sing live at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and one of them will be kicked off on the results show at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
- SHARON FINK
Gangsta rappers 50 Cent, The Game end their feud
On Wednesday, 50 Cent and The Game publicly squashed a bitter feud that had erupted into gunfire last week after 50 kicked Game out of his G-Unit clique for disloyalty.
The two platinum-selling gangsta rappers shook hands at the end of the press conference at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, after speaking about contrition and the need for peace.
50 noted that Wednesday was the anniversary of the unsolved murder of Biggie Smalls in 1997, the culmination of a rap war that pitted East Coast against West.
"We're here today to show that people can rise above the most difficult circumstances and together we can put negativity behind us," said 50, a native New Yorker. "A lot of people don't want to see it happen, but we're responding to the two most important groups, our family and our fans."
State finds Jim Morrison film footage in its archives
Thirty-four years after his death, Florida government workers have found and restored what they believe to be the earliest film of Jim Morrison, shot in the early '60s when he attended Florida State University.
It was discovered when the Department of State went through 1,000 films in its archive and might have gone unnoticed if an archivist hadn't seen a familiarity in the way young Morrison was standing in part of the brief clip.
The clip was discovered last year among films a PBS station donated to the state in 1989 and was recently posted to the state's film archive Web site at www.floridamemory.com after being digitally converted. It will air on VH1 this Friday.
[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:14:16]
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