Talent Show

Like the balloons surrounding them on stage, area young people rose to the occasion Saturday for a talent show in Coatesville. Though the acts were few, the entertainment was high-spirited as they performed for about 100 relatives and friends at the Young Women's Christian Association. Among the hits was a hula dance by the local Girl Scout troop, which brought a little bit of Hawaii to the Y with the dazzling leis, skirts and headbands. While they danced, the girls - under the leadership of Yvette Crichton - mouthed the words to an accompanying record.

A televised talent show to raise funds for the Marple Township Public Library will be held Feb. 22 with entertainment provided by amateur performers and local celebrities. The program, Televent, will be shown on community service Channel 10, available in Marple and Haverford Townships, from 2 to 6 p.m. It will be staged at Marple Newtown Senior High School. Auditions for the show will be held at 7 p.m. today and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Appointments for auditions are required, said Maureen Muehsam, co-chair of the program with Walt MacDonald, television traffic reporter.

Jamar Jackson was dressed to the nines as he clicked up to the stage in his tap shoes and sequined bow tie at the LaMott Community Center's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Talent Show. And when "La Bamba" began playing from an old stereo atop a dated RCA television, the 8-year-old Jackson began to strut his stuff. "Heel, toe, tap. Heel, toe, tap," he whispered to himself. As the music picked up, so did Jamar, strutting back and forth across the stage and bearing a smile that filled the auditorium of the community center, at Willow and Sycamore Avenues.

"Tis the "Season of the Arts" in Cherry Hill, and the township will celebrate on Friday with a variety/talent show starring township residents. The free event will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Cherry Hill municipal building on Mercer Street. Free refreshments will be available. "Season of the Arts" is one of four seasonal art events sponsored each year by the Cherry Hill Arts Advisory Board, a volunteer arm of the township government that tries to encourage cultural pursuits in the municipality, according to publicity chair Elena Winter.

Baton twirling, flute tooting, tap dancing, classical piano playing, and operatic singing will have a place on prime-time television after all. The Miss America talent competition, which ABC banished last month from its Sept. 18 pageant broadcast, has been partly restored to the two-hour show, the Miss America Organization said yesterday. The evening's final two contenders will perform their two-minute routines before the judges in a reality-TV-style competition. The winner takes all - the tiara and title of Miss America 2005.

Dee Snider, the WMMR-FM (93.3) DJ and former '80s big-hair rock demigod, is making dreams come true for Pennsylvania kids at Hamburg Area High School. Well some of them, anyway. The former Twisted Sister frontman, whose "We're Not Gonna Take It" is a touching teen coming-of-age-and-rebellion classic, got angry when The Man tried to cancel a talent show next month at the Berks County high school. Authorities cited worries about injuries if kids moshed while the bands rocked out. (Moshing is what those darn kids do when they don't know how to dance, or are listening to music that demands spasmodic thrashing about.

"Jesus is love / He's up above / He'll do anything to keep your love," Daven Rowe chanted as he strutted back and forth in front of the communion rail at the Murphy A.M.E. Church in Chester. When 12-year-old Daven finished his gospel rap Saturday, the 100 people attending a talent show in the church stood up and cheered. Daven's rap, the only one in a show that emphasized gospel singing, won him first place among 25 contestants. The music director of the Grace and Truth Delegation, a Chester gospel group that sponsored the talent search, couldn't have been happier.

So there was Ms. Morales peeling off her shirt to reveal a slinky black tank top, and Mrs. Tuff prancing around showing some serious cleavage, and Tiffanie and Heather's mom shaking her stuff in a black sequined dress, and you just cannot possibly imagine how embarrassing it all was. "Teachers are supposed to be smart," 12-year-old Jennifer Williams said reprovingly. "Not silly. " Hey, kids, lighten up. Silly was the whole point. It was a talent show with a twist yesterday at East Camden Middle School.

You've dreamed of it for years. You finish your song, and, for one millisecond, there is silence. Then the audience breaks into wild, thunderous applause. You take your bow. They beg for more. And as you start your rendition of "My Way," they drop dimes, quarters, yes, even dollar bills into your clarinet case. So that last bit doesn't really figure in your wildest dreams. But you have thought of performing before an audience, haven't you? Then the "Great Street Entertainer Contest," at tomorrow's first Arch Street Festival, is your chance.

Crystal waters, lush mountains under sunny skies, and hundreds of adoring, excited young girls cheering at a concert in paradise for a hot new singing group. It's a young man's dream. For Washington Township's Justin Mortelliti, it's now a reality. Last month, Mortelliti stepped onto a stage at the Willow Grove Park Mall to sing the Backstreet Boys tune "I Need You Tonight. " The song was an audition, and afterward he was hounded by young spectators who momentarily abandoned their shopping to whistle and scream at the blue-eyed darling.

ONE COMMENT people will never make about Joey Gorman is that he's a one-trick pony. Out and about, he's known mostly for the skills that last year enabled him to earn Pitcher of the Year honors for the Daily News All-City Baseball Team. But inside the walls at Ss. Neumann-Goretti, he also receives respect for his academic prowess (top 25 among seniors), standing as the student council vice president, and wildly impressive singing talents. Oh, wait. The jury is out on that last one. Tuesday, the 5-10, 180-pound lefthander, who's bound for Saint Joseph's University and was making his first in-game throws of any kind this season, came within three outs of a shutout as the Saints bested visiting Archbishop Wood, 5-2, in a Catholic Blue opener.

Here's your chance to see huge dinosaurs up close, even some originals from the film Jurassic Park , at Granite Run Mall's new permanent interactive museum, Dino Don's Dinosaurium. The 6,500-square-foot museum, which is also a learning lab that combines science and education, showcases 12 rare dinosaur species such as the Yangchuanosaurus, Sichuanosaurus, and Velociraptor, the dino-villain in the Jurassic Park series. The exhibit has moving dinosaurs and a pit where kids can go on a dinosaur dig, searching for fossils.

First, Donald Trump bid for the White House. Then Alec Baldwin said he wasn't yet running for mayor of New York, but might. Martin Sheen fans urged him to run for president of Ireland. (He isn't.) Now it's Rob Lowe . Sheen's The West Wing costar tells Fox News' Fox & Friends he won't/might enter national politics. He won't because it's nasty: "When I see the [political] discourse, I definitely think it's better to play politicians [on TV] than actually be them," Lowe says.

LONDON - In northeastern England they say she's a canny lass - and maybe that's the problem. British sweetheart Cheryl Cole has reportedly been dumped from U.S. television, and tabloid media say she lost her big break in part over fears American audiences wouldn't understand her regional accent or the phrases unique to her corner of Britain. Cole, whose rags-to-riches showbiz story captivated Britain, had been expected to appear as a judge on Simon Cowell's The X Factor , due to premiere in the United States this year.

The tween set has found its cinematic Valhalla in "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. " Jon M. Chu's hybrid documentary/concert film details the mop-topped idol's rise from small-town Canadian nobody to international pop star, culminating in a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. "Never Say Never" is as much a love letter to Bieber's fans as it is a week-in-the-life of the 16-year-old. Their pronouncements of love and adoration, either on camera or via Twitter posts, are liberally sprinkled throughout, including various intentions of marriage and pronouncements of undying love.

TO EAGLES defensive end Trent Cole, there is no mystery as to why NBC grabbed his team's game this Sunday against the 5-9 Minnesota Vikings for its prime-time slot. The game originally was scheduled for 1 p.m. "We got Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson. You got athletes and you got entertainment, baby," Cole said yesterday. "They get it done and they get it done in all kinds of different ways, crazy ways. " Vick was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week yesterday for the third time in the last 7 weeks, which is a lot. He led the Eagles to three offensive touchdowns in a little more than 6 minutes Sunday, then watched Jackson's 65-yard punt return stun the Giants on the final play, in a 38-31 victory that will be talked about for a long time.

Could it be true? Could the crisis that has been sinking American Idol really be over? Seems we're halfway there: Variety says Steven Tyler has signed to replace Simon Cowell on Fox's talent show in a top-secret, yet-to-be-announced deal. "Steven is doing [ Idol ]," Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton told the Newark Star-Ledger late Wednesday. "The ink is dry on that. " Adds Hamilton, "I don't know if American Idol will be rock-and-roll enough for him, but it is an opportunity for millions of people to see another side of Steven Tyler.

Think you're good enough - or wacky enough - for American Idol ? Get your traveling gear ready. Signups are Sunday and Monday for next Tuesday's tryouts at the Izod Center at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. Alas, the ratings hog of a talent show won't be back in Philadelphia this year. Too bad. Last year's auditions here not only set some kind of record for wannabes getting wristbands, but produced some of last season's most memorable personalities. Like the Bucks County guy who serenaded judge Paula Abdul with his "Stalker" song.

How does America's Got Talent, which is basically a bad copy of The Gong Show, the most monumentally vapid series that ever aired, make such compelling TV? First of all, Talent has upgraded at several skill positions, bringing in Jerry Springer as MC this season and replacing bland female judge Brandy with the fiery Sharon Osbourne. Then it lets its freak flag fly. In the season opener, Osbourne got so mad at fellow jurist Piers Morgan that she stormed off the set. Morgan had just offered some withering criticism to a 9-year-old dancer so tacky she made the kid in Little Miss Sunshine look like Shirley Temple.