Paula Abdul AWOL From 'Idol' Panel

Liguori was all over this one.

"First and foremost, we stand behind the findings," he said firmly.

"We went out, got an outside counsel, did an extremely thorough investigation," which, he explained, was geared toward "the sanctity of the competition and making sure that all those votes count and that the competition is fair."

The investigation found that "the claims were unsubstantiated and, you know, [we] clearly felt there was no need for any action on our part," he said.

On the other hand, he also said: "We've clarified and reclarified our fraternization policies and feel from this point forward that, in fact, as always, that the show and its competition are paramount and its sanctity is in place."

Lythgoe was asked about that "clarification and reclarification."

"Peter Liguori put an end to that this morning and I'm happy to leave it there," Lythgoe said in that sniffy way that Brits excel at.

"We have to move on," he said, sounding more and more like Mary Poppins talking to those bratty kids who turned out to be little darlings, just starved for attention.

But critics, who'd seen that flick ages ago -- and possibly again last year when the studio released a 40th-anniversary DVD boxed set, not that there's anything wrong with that -- knew how to handle a Mary Poppins type, and persisted in demanding that he address how the fraternization rules had been reclarified.

Lythgoe insisted the rules have not changed one whit and have just been "pointed out again."

"It's always been the same," he said testily.

"I can't touch Simon anymore," Jackson said, jumping in. Then he turned to Cowell and added, "How do I quit you, Simon?"

* * *

Moving the Golden Globe Awards to Monday night brought NBC a whole lot of talking points about how the trophy show gave the network its biggest non-Olympic Monday in more than six years and improved on its Monday season average by 75 percent among 18-to-49-year-olds, the group the network promises to deliver to advertisers.

Nearly 19 million viewers caught the show, in which "Brokeback Mountain" came away the big winner, Anthony Hopkins was given the career achievement award and Hugh Laurie of Fox's "House" delivered the only really decent acceptance speech. That's nearly 2 million better than last year's Globes audience, which got pulverized opposite ABC's ratings magnet "Desperate Housewives," which is why NBC moved it to Monday.

But it is still far short of the 26 million-and-change the show clocked in 2004. Which is probably because "Brokeback Mountain" came away the big winner, Anthony Hopkins was given the career achievement award and "House's" Hugh Laurie delivered the only really decent acceptance speech.

And, right about now, ABC suits are steeling themselves for having one of the smaller Oscar audiences on record in about a month.