‘American Idol’ notes: Adam Lambert, Haley Reinhart, Clay Aiken

For our Wednesday morning edition of “American Idol” notes, we are kicking things off first and foremost with the latest about Adam Lambert’s interest in joining the season as a judge next season It’s a bit of a retread in the sense that he’s talked about it a number of times as of late … but isn’t it still exciting?

In a new interview with MTV Australia, the season 8 alum said that he has still not heard whether or not the gig is happening, but he did explain why he would be so interested in giving it a shot of it is offered to him:

“When the idea first came up and the conversations first started I was like ‘this would be the craziest full circle moment wouldn’t it?’

“I would love the opportunity to help contestants out in achieving their dreams and reaching their goals, knowing what it takes to go through the show and how stressful and kind of how wild and bizarre it all is. I think it would kind of help them to have someone on the panel who has been right where they are.” 

At the moment, we still think Adam is probably a long shot, only because the male names that are getting the most attention at the moment are Keith Urban and Enrique Iglesias. However, it’s impossible to really rule him out at the moment — and the fact that Nick Jonas is helping out Demi Lovato on “The X Factor” right now might give him more of an opportunity.

Haley Reinhart’s Michael Jackson problem – We are starting to have a feeling that the Jackson 5 hit “I Want You Back” might be one of the most deceptively hard songs out there for an artist to cover. We heard Janet Devlin botch the lyrics on the British “X Factor” last year in a live performance, and now Haley Reinhart has done the same exact thing.

Our heart goes out to Haley after watching this. (Video via TMZ.)

Clay Aiken vs. John Rich – This fight actually goes back more to “The Celebrity Apprentice” than “American Idol” in some ways, as Rich ultimately met and spoke with the season 2 runner-up on Donald Trump’s reality show earlier this year. However, they are now in the middle of a nasty war of words over a message that Rich felt had racial implications:

“Playing drinking game with my brother now. We drink every time we see a black person on screen at the RNC convention #soberasamormon.”

Rich went on to blast Aiken for having a charity about “inclusion” while he makes comments like these; meanwhile, Aiken stuck to his guns and said that he feels that the Republican party (which held its convention this week in Tampa) is far too narrow-minded when it comes to the people that represent it.

We could go on here for a while here, but there’s no point — what you need to know is that John feels that Clay was being responsible, and that Clay is not backing off his comment.

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To check out some more news related to Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez, be sure and visit the link here.

Photo: RCA Press / Lee Cherry