lowculture.co.uk

Friday, February 16, 2007

Lowe culture

SUSPENSE! American Idol, ITV2, 8.30pm

For some of us, nothing is more excruciating than the weeks of well orchestrated bad auditions for American Idol that somehow still inspire people to ponder "do they actually think they are good?" Well, of course they don't. This year, fewer of the people remotely good are even appearing on the show, making the transition into stage two of the series slightly more welcome.

One contestant who auditioned for the show and actually does have a rather good impression of himself is Tom Lowe. Tom is of course formerly of the Tom Watkins boyband creation (and lowculture favourite) North and South (post-Deuce, pre-Grand Designs) who went on to spend some time in the usual West End productions before fucking off to Harvard as a back-up plan.

Now he would like to be famous again and does not seem too concerned that being a gay or taking some of his clothes off for the university's sex journal is going to get in the way. The way this LA Weekly piece pulls at straws in hope of a scandal all seems rather confusing and silly. The way they go on, you would think they had uncovered a taste for chunky thighs, sauna sex and watersports.

Indeed, the real scandal here is the gross imbalance of Massachusetts tourism guides, Star-spangled Banners, student films, Tigers and comedy cross-dressing compared to the lack of No Sweat episodes on the internet. Tom really deserves another big break.

Tonight, we will discover the fate of 'Thomas Lowe' as the Hollywood group are narrowed to a mere twelve boys and twelve girls. The fact that his audition has so far only aired on UK television and not at all on the American broadcast should in no way predict his fate.

Well, really!