American Idol star Blake Lewis is refusing to quit the music business after he was dropped by his label Arista Records - insisting it’s “no biggy”.

The season six runner-up was axed from the label’s books after disappointing sales of his debut album Audio Day Dream last year - which sold approximately 300,000 copies in the U.S.

Lewis joins a string of former contestants of the talent contest to be dropped - Idol winners Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard and fellow runner-up Katherine McPhee have all been dumped by Arista.

He writes on his MySpace blog, “Ring, ring, ring went the phone. Iain my manager baring the news. Arista isn’t picking up the second option. Meaning, I’m not doing another record with them. I’m totally fine with this. I guess the right time was now. No biggy.”

But Lewis remains optimistic about the music corporation’s decision, because he will be kept busy with a host of other recording projects.

He adds, “I’m still with 19 Recordings and I got a tour and new record on the way.”

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WENN

American Idol David Cook confirmed to E! News that he and fellow Idol alum Kimberly Caldwell are still an item, and even got the blessing of Fox’s president of entertainment, Kevin Reilly.

“It’s great, he’s a catch and so is she,” Reilly tells E!

Reilly and Cook were attending the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation’s annual Taste for a Cure Benefit in Beverly Hills.

Cook says that his season two Idol contestant squeeze Caldwell is doing well and “doing her thing,” shooting the miniseries Memories of Murder on Catalina Island. But with Cook gearing up for an Idol tour starting July 1, how will they keep the fires of passion burning?

“Email, text, all of that is pretty much going to be my life for the next few months,” he says.

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The songwriting superduo behind Leona Lewis’ smash hit Bleeding Love has given new American Idol winner David Cook a big boost by offering to write him a string of tunes.

Jesse McCartney and Ryan Tedder originally wrote Bleeding Love for MCCartney’s new album - but realised the song would be better sung by a woman, giving Lewis, the winner of British TV talent competition The X-Factor, a huge hit.

And now the duo hopes to do the same for another talent show victor.

McCartney says, “Ryan and I are planning to write some songs with him for his (Cook) album.”

Cook beat fellow finalist David Archuleta in the Idol finale on Wednesday.

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WENN

Carrie Underwood Performs on American Idol Finale…

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Seal Perfoms on American Idol Finale…

Spoiler Alert! Do not read on if you don’t want to know who won American Idol tonight.

After months of tryouts, eliminations, semifinals, celebrity mentors, more eliminations, Ford commercials and awkward elimination-night medleys, David Cook was named the champ of the seventh season of American Idol.

The stunned AI victor wept openly on stage after hearing the decision live on Wednesday night’s star-studded finale broadcast. “I am at a loss for words right now,” he said before being joined onstage by his mother and brother, to whom he pointed and said, “this is all your fault.”

As Idol host Ryan Seacrest announced, Cook had earned 54% of the 97.5 million votes cast after Tuesday night’s final performance show, which saw the ultimate champ receive mostly negative comments from judge Simon Cowell.

However, in a rare show of humanity before the results were announced, Simon admitted that he had watched the show at home last night and, “it wasn’t quite so clear-cut as we called it.” The ornery Brit then apologized to Cook, saying, “I think I was verging on disrespectful.”

The finale itself was an odd, and occasionally hilarious, mix of the old and the new as veteran performers like Graham Nash, Donna Summer, ZZ Top and Bryan Adams and newcomers One Republic and The Jonas Brothers took the stage to perform with the two Davids and the other 10 finalists.

In one of the evening’s highlights, pop star George Michael made a surprise appearance, bringing judge Paula Abdul to tears during his performance.

Vying for the night’s most hilarious moments was a pre-taped segment featuring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr., as auditioning Pips for music legend Gladys Knight. But probably the happiest moment of the finale was when 44-year-old eliminated auditioner, Renaldo Lapuz gave an encore performance of his original tune — accompanied by the University of Southern California marching band!

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WENN

From the looks of disgust on Simon Cowell’s face this season, it might seem like he despises each of the American Idol contestants with equal vigor. Not true! As Blender has learned, Simon despises one contestant less than the others.

Who do you think deserves to win this season? we asked Simon. “Probably David Cook,” he drawled. “I think he’s done more to deserve it over the eleven weeks. He’s taken more risks, he’s done things with certain songs that have been more interesting. If I’m gonna base it on who has done the best performances over the live shows, David Cook deserves to win.”

Of course it’s also true that Simon is coaching Cook this week, which means he’ll sing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” a ballad also recorded by Cowell’s chart-topping X Factor discovery, Leona Lewis. “I love that song! David Cook didn’t even know what it was,” Cowell snorted.

For an obnox — uh, opinionated guy like Simon, nothing is more ruinous to good television than boring contestants. He was clearly not pleased with Jason Castro (”He just gave up — I get frustrated over that”). “There was a classic moment last week,” Cowell continues unhappily. “We had these callers phone in and I forget what the question was — ‘What do you like?’ — and they just sat there. They couldn’t talk. It was literally un-be-liev-able.”

Is it because they’re all working to ingratiate themselves with voters? “Of course! It’s like they’ve studied the show and they don’t want to put a foot wrong. And that’s going to have to change, going forward. I want what I call gobby, talkative people on the show.”

So, next season of Idol: gobby, talkative singers. We won’t say which contestant Simon finds the most boring, but we will mention this: When told that his Blender interviewer bears a resemblance to David Archuleta, Cowell roared, “I would think you have a bit more personality than he does.”

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WENN

Paula Abdul says she just got confused on Tuesday’s American Idol when she critiqued two songs by contestant Jason Castro (when he’d only sung one).

In an interview on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show Wednesday, she blamed the gaffe on a change in judging.

For the first time in seven years, she said judges were asked to wait to critique contestants until all five had performed (normally, each contestant gets feedback as soon as they’ve finished their song).

Abdul said she first heard about the change when the show went live.

“I go, ‘We have never had to do this before … Oh my God, what do we do?’” she told Seacrest.

“We were freaking out,” Abdul added. “I said, ‘We’re gonna need paper and a pen to make sure we remember what we saw.’”

So she jotted down some notes.

When it came time to give Castro her feedback, she said, “I started looking at what I’m writing… I was reading the critique of what I was writing for Jason Castro….”

On the same page: Her notes for contestant David Cook, which she thought were for a second song Castro had performed.

“I got lost in my notes, and that is as simple as it was,” she said. “It’s so confusing.

“We were all discombobulated,” she added. “It was just crazy, that’s all.”

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WENN