For Amanda Overmyer, the Road Wasn't All That Long and Winding After All

It's back to flatbed truck performances for Amanda "I Don't Do No Stinkin' Ballads" Overmyer. Done in by Beatles Week, Amanda received the fewest votes from viewers and got the hook on "American Idol" last night. She was the 11th Idolette left standing in the competition; her ejection means the Biker Nurse will not get to be part of the increasingly less sold-out annual "American Idol" tour.

The remaining 10 Idolettes -- Nanny Brooke, Coroner Munchkin, Irish Tattoo Girl, Aussie, Syesha, Ramiele, Chikezie, Muppet Dread-Boy, This Year's Winner David Archuleta -- and, yes, miraculously, even the Horse Pawner who, once again, was among the bottom two vote-getters -- all in. Like it or not, they are this year's "American Idol" Tour Team.

No longer will we worry that Amanda's brown hair-hat, which she always wore over her bottle-blond hair, is about to fall off during one of her more torrid performances. No longer will we get to see glimpses of her enormous tongue. We'll miss hearing about how she's happiest when amid her books.

Amanda won't enjoy the input of this year's "American Idol" "mentors," announced on last night's show: Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey, Andrew Lloyd Webber and -- Neil Diamond. Who knew he was still alive?

Their collective age equals that of the immortal New York police detective on that new Fox drama "New Amsterdam." When Mariah Carey hears the list she will develop a scheduling conflict, even if she does have a new album to hype.

Biker Nurse's dismissal is not even the first time this season Vote for the Worst's bad singer of choice has gotten the hook. Most recently, the Web site that aims to undermine the Fox show's credibility by getting people to vote for the worst singer, had thrown its weight behind Danny Noriega. He got whacked on March 6 during the semifinals. Can we now please stop writing about that Web site like it's prescient -- or relevant?

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A news report looking at the world of prostitutes only sounds like a local TV station ratings stunt. It's actually the work of ABC News, taking advantage of enormous viewer appetite for the Governor & the Hookers story to slap a slightly retooled two-hour special on the air tomorrow, featuring the division's Princess Di visiting a legal brothel in Nevada.

The "Diane Sawyer Special" had been intended for later this season -- no doubt during the May ratings sweeps, when network suits' thoughts naturally turn to weddings (scripted dramas), baby birthings (scripted sitcoms) and, apparently, hookers, over at the news division.

The "20/20" report actually was in the works for two years. [Insert "extensive research" joke here.] But ABC News decided to fast-track it and get it on the air this week, after former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's scandalicious resignation last week amid reports he'd been involved with a prostitution ring.

David Sloan, the executive producer of ABC's newsmagazines, promised the Associated Press the special would be "provocative." [Insert titter here.] References to expensive New York penthouses were added to the news report to reflect the new angle on the story, in which Di herself will speak "candidly" with "America's 'working girls,' " the news division says coyly.

"Who are these women, what drives them to sell sex?" the news division wondered hand-wringingly in its announcement.

And, in case you think TV networks don't have a sense of humor: Immediately following the ABC News announcement in the network's daily package of news releases e-mailed to the media was one alerting them to the opportunity to join a conference call today with "Stacey," the 26-year-old contestant on ABC's "The Bachelor" who "made things very hot for" Bachelor Matt on this week's episode by "providing the shocker of the evening as she deftly tucked her thong into the waist of his pants."

And, in that news release immediately following the one angsting over what drives women to sell sex, ABC provided titillating details of what the next episode of the competition show has in store. (For the uninitiated, "The Bachelor" pits a bunch of hot young women against each other as they vie to be "chosen" by some hot young attention-seeking guy to be "proposed to" -- or not. It seems Bachelor Matt is going to take eight of the series's remaining "gorgeous women" to a fashion show, where they will be surprised to learn they are going to be the "models" at the "sexy fashion show" and will be expected to "try and out-strut each other on the runway," which will turn into a "temptress battle" as they "attempt to impress Matt with their sexy moves."

One of the "lucky bachelorettes" will receive a rose from Matt -- a signal he's chosen her to remain in the competition -- because, ABC raves, she was "the hottest thing on the runway."

Matt will take another batch of seven "gorgeous women" to Las Vegas for an evening of "gambling and partying like rock stars," which will lead, ABC promises, to an "explosive cocktail party where the women bear [insert snarky comment about the deplorable state of homonyms here] their claws to fight for Matt's roses." And the women who do not receive roses will "stare with daggers in their eyes at the one he chooses to keep."

Who knew? The answer to ABC News' pressing question was over at ABC Entertainment all along.