There's no tragedy - Columbine, the Sept. 11 attacks, this latest massacre - that can't be exploited through misunderstanding, willful and otherwise.
So while my immediate response to the eye roll was to assume that Simon felt the contestant, who'd just been roundly criticized for his performance, was making an inappropriate bid for sympathy, others apparently assumed, or decided, that he was showing contempt for the message itself.
Which, let's face it, makes no sense at all. Not even Simon Cowell's that cold.
Now, of course, damage control has set in. In a conference call with reporters, "Idol" executive producer Ken Warwick offered a third explanation: that Simon hadn't heard the Virginia Tech mention at all, but was responding to something Chris had said earlier, specifically the contestant's claim that singing nasally was a vocal style.
The judges "always miss what the contestants say," he said, explaining that the actual performances are picked up on different speakers behind the judges.
"He'd be the biggest fool on television if he [had been reacting to the Virginia Tech mention], and he's not a fool, believe me," said the producer, who described Simon as "mortified" when he saw the replay.
He did acknowledge that Simon's later statement about the tragedy might have been better worded. "He's not that good at making statements off the cuff, but he does everything off the cuff. It wasn't the most lucid statement."
Still, he said, "no one in their right mind would pull a face like that when such a sensitive issue was being discussed."
When I noted that Simon's rolled his eyes before when contestants made statements that might be construed as bids for public sympathy, he didn't disagree.
That's not, however, what happened in this case, he said.
