This is one of those incredibly rare nights when the question of who is getting voted off is far less interesting than other stuff — specifically, how they handle the Paula disaster from Tuesday night. Theories and speculation have flown all day — it's been blamed on bad notes, confusion re the dress rehearsal, Paula's spaciness (whatever the reason for THAT), even Simon confusing Paula with whispers in her ear. (I don't remember seeing that on the air, but when clearly Paula's camp is looking for a plausible excuse, and shifting the blame is as good a way as any.)

But when push came to shove, Ryan delivered a vague, terse defense of Paula. He said the judges were thrown a curveball" (presumably by being asked their opinions sooner than planned), and that rumors about Abdul "were not true. She’s part of our family and we love her."

And that was it, aside from a lot of bowing to Paula during the show itself, including a big softball during the viewer call-in questions. Looks as if they'll just let the audience and the bloggers — hello! — keep yakking about the issue, fueling interest in the show again.

Anyway, in progress notes from the telecast, after the jump. …

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Nice to see Lucy Davis again. Even better to see that she was still around at the end of the episode.

Trying to catch up on things I've missed. Am sampling the "Costas Now" town meeting, including the Bissinger rant/debate.(Good gosh, Braylon Edwards, what did you think you had walked into?) But here I'm going to talk a bit about some of the Monday/Tuesday dramas that I finally grabbed some time to watch today. After the jump. ….

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Goodbye, Shannon and Derek. A Monday/Tuesday wrap-up after the jump.

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Since, as I mentioned below, I've been at the movies, I'm going to do some speed-watching tonight. But notes such as they are, including Paula losing track of who had sung, after the jump.

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(Associated Press/Paramount)

Tonight I put on my movie-guy hat and hit a preview of "Iron Man." Not going into a whole review here, but I've been psyched for this pretty much from the moment I saw the suit, and I generally enjoyed the movie. A solid three stars (out of four). Very good performance from Robert Downey Jr. And it didn't hurt that I saw it in a theater with a huge screen and a seat-vibrating sound system.

Had to believe it's been 10 years since he passed. But the occasion is being marked in a variety of ways, from the DVD release of the Philip Casnoff-starring "Sinatra" miniseries (on May 13) to a multiplatform TCM celebration. Details of that after the jump.

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Notes on "HIMYM" and on Miley Cyrus, after the jump.

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I spent about two hours last night trying to get online before I gave up, went upstairs and curled up into a ball of nothing-is-going-right. (The earlier part of the day had included wrangling with my prescription plan over whether it would pay for some medication. Still haven't sorted out that one.)

The two hours included roughly an hour and a half of telephone time, the bulk of that on hold. There is something so delightful about — after running through a series of automated-phone steps that haven't helped — being on hold, finally getting a human, discussing the problem for a few minutes before being told you'll be connected to another technician for more help, spending another 30 minutes on hold, then getting a human who has no apparent knowledge of your earlier conversation.

Anyway, after an extended conversation and a couple of more pauses on hold, the tech suggested that it was a fairly simple problem. Which I got half-fixed last night, though not enough to keep me from curling up. And the other half fixed itself overnight. And I feel a sense of relief far too vast for a reasonable person — but just about right for someone with an unreasonable attachment to the Internet and this blog.

Not wanting to miss a chance to up the ratings during sweeps, "How I Met Your Mother" has set another Britney Spears appearance for May 12. Here's the announcement:

Singer Britney Spears will return to HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER to guest star in an episode to be broadcast Monday, May 12 (8:30-9:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Production on the episode began today.

When Barney and Abby realize that they have one thing in common — their mutual hatred of Ted — the "couple" decides to go to the bar to flaunt their new relationship in Ted's face. Desperate to get a rise out of his former pal, Barney pops a surprising question to Abby.

I guess this means the Barney-Robin hookup will be brief…

As I said in this morning's post, I spent the weekend doing things other than blogging, including yard work and even a trip to the movies. ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall." I may have more to say about it, especially about the difference between a comedy and a drama with laughs, with "Marshall" feeling more like the latter.)

But I am out of the cone of silence on all the shows mentioned above. Comments after the jump.

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