Idol Chatter: 'Idol' hopefuls from near and far

First, the good news: The woman declared by Ryan Sea-crest to be "Philly's scariest woman" lives in Allentown.

Now, the bad: Although thousands of people lined up at the Wachovia Center last August hoping to become the next "American Idol," a number of them were not from around here.

And some of those carpetbaggers can really sing, with singers from as far away as California and Oregon hogging the spotlight that was supposed to be trained on us.

Television's biggest show kicked off its seventh season last night with a two-hour look at last summer's Philadelphia auditions, and although there were plenty of colorful characters - including Allentown's Alexis Cohen, 24, whose heavy hand with the glitter wasn't enough to get her past the judges - the sideshow aspect of the auditions seemed to have been toned down a bit.

We're told that 29 singers made it to the Hollywood round from Philly, but, as usual, we heard from only a handful, including locals Joey Catalano, 19, of Mays Landing, N.J., who has both a nice voice and a great story (a 200-pound weight loss); Jonathan Baines, 17, of Smyrna, Del., and Chris Watson, 20, of Dover, Del. *