American Idol finalist Scott MacIntyre is sounding off against the Fox megahit for cutting his planned dueling-pianos performance with fellow contestant Matt Giraud from last week’s finale. "Perhaps Tatiana and Bikini Girl were more important after all," he jokes in his MySpace blog post. He reveals that the number — which would’ve featured the piano men duking it out on Billy Joel’s "Tell Her About It" — was cut just hours before the live broadcast because Joel couldn’t appear with them. " (A representative for Joel denies that he was was invited to perform with MacIntyre.) According to some of the producers who witnessed our rehearsal, it wasthe most exciting and memorable number of the entire Finale show," MacIntyre writes. "Over the last few days I have tried to reason this out every waypossible, and it makes no sense to me why one of the most compellingand unique performances of the show would be cut simply because theoriginal artist wasn’t present." The 8th-place finisher says he was disappointed not to have truly gotten a memorable moment in the finale, but that producers have promised to make it up to him by having him back to perform next season.

UPDATE: Billy Joel rep says singer was not invited, did not "pull out" of American Idol finale

So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe has issued an apology for remarking during this week’s season premiere that same-sex ballroom couple Misha Belfer and Mitch Kiber "probably alienate a lot of our audience." During his critique, he’d also told them, ”I’d like to see you both dancing with a girl… You never know, you might enjoy it, too.” After GLAAD took notice, Lythgoe said he regrets the "poor word choices," adding, "I am not homophobic and it was extremely upsetting for me to beclassed as such." His statement goes on to say:

"I have been forthright and consistent with myopinion, as a judge, that professional male dancers should move withstrength and agility — like Gene Kelly and Rudolph Nureyev.  I nowrealize how this could be misconstrued.

"I have been a dancer, and involved in the danceworld, for nearly 50 years. Professionally and personally, I believethe sexual orientation of an auditioner or contestant is irrelevant.All that said, the fact that I have unintentionally upset people isdistressing to me and it is obvious I have made mistakes that I mustlearn from. I trust that my humor will be more sensitive and mindfulmoving forward."

Clay Aiken says he’s sorry for his "colorful" criticism of Adam Lambert’s American Idol performance of "Ring of Fire." The 2003 Idol runner-up had blasted this season’s frontrunner-turned-runner-up in a blog post last week that said Lambert’s take on the Johnny Cash tune made him think his "ears would bleed." But on Friday he posted that he "obviously meant it as a colorful statement to imply that I did not enjoy what I heard" and didn’t mean to "’slam’ … Adam as a person."