Shear Genius sets up shop for Season 3,Heroes is ready to wrap up and AI auditions come to a merciful end

The new season of Shear Genius started up last night,with a new hostess(Camila Avles)and as a regular judge,Jonathan Antin,the cranky hairstylist from Bravo's Blow Out series. I don't know why Jacklyn Smith had to leave and already missing the mentor from the earlier seasons but am willing to give his replacement Orlando Pita a fair shake.



The challenges were pretty good here,with the Shortcut having the stylists give punked up goth girls with extreme hair a more subdued but chic look and then the Elimination round had them creating elaborate hair for a bikini runway show that only showcased the bottoms of the bathing suit.

Yep,it was Lady Godiva time and many of the hairdos were successful in concealing the hopefully natural endowments of the models but quite a few of them resembled Dee Synder in his Twisted Sister glory days. Adee was pretty close to being sent home for his last minute "veil" approach to the challenge but he managed to survive for another day.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out,but judging from the preview clip ,it looks like the models are running a real risk here. If they're not getting attacked by hair foils,there's also bleach splashing in their eyes. What is up with that,seriously?:





The next to last episode of Heroes(for now,at least-the show will most likely return this spring)that aired this week was actually very good,with Sylar and Peter taking some time out in their mutual mind trap to settle some of their differences and Claire finally wising up to Samuel's parlor tricks.

All of those revelations about Bennett's past,even his intimidation of Gretchen just before Thanksgiving,were not enough to sway our cheerleader from seeing what a major league bad guy Samuel truly is.

Unfortunately,Claire was savvy enough to turn down Samuel's offer to join the circus family but not smart enough to avoid getting caught in that trailer with her dad as it was buried deep below. Funny how she and Sylar had to deal with the whole buried alive deal this season-those two have way too much in common for comfort:



The upcoming finale seems to follow my Lex Luthor Superman I theory,only it's become the right idea but the wrong coast. Yes,the big showdown is once again heading for NYC and Sylar may be the one to save the day this time. Who would've thought that,folks?:





All good things must come to an end,including the audition portion of American Idol which finished up this week. It's been fun to see some of the promising singers that may make it to the Top Twelve but more amusing viewing came from the hapless hopefuls who seemed to have no clue about their lack of musical skills.

For our last look at the best of the worst,we start with Stephanie Fisher. Her obsession with the number 7 brought her no luck at all and neither did her fan girl crush on Victoria Beckam. It didn't help matters much that she looked like a junior league version of one of those Real Housewives of Whatever County to boot:



At least Ms. Fisher "left with some dignity",unlike Kimberly Bishop,whose leftover Halloween at Hot Topic appearance and beauty pageant promises were at odds with each other but her performance at the audition was far too revealing of her lack of underwear coverage:



Total loss of dignity honors can only go to one contestant here and without further ado,ladies and gentlemen,here is Bikini Boy!:



Next week begins the Hollywood round and we'll see how well Ellen fits into the mix. Should be worth the watching and perhaps the real diamonds in the rough will be able to shine brighter and sing better than before.

RANDOM NOTES:



THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:Tonight's episode is another flashback in time,as the Salvatore brothers dig up a few memories as well as graves to uncover the connection between Elena and Catherine,their vampiric mistress of the dark.

They really do manage to pull off these period sequences well and Nina Dobrev is rather good at being a bad girl. At some point,Elena and Catherine are going to be facing off against each other(not a spoiler,just my storyteller senses tingling here)and that should be something to see: