When Cowell is “rude and mean,” DeGeneres said, she’ll tell him. But she said she’ll find a compassionate way to critique the contestants.

DeGeneres will join “American Idol” as the fourth judge when the show returns for its ninth season in January. The seat opened up when Paula Abdul resigned in the midst of a contract dispute.

DeGeneres, who signed a five-year deal with “Idol,” will continue with her daytime talk show.

For anyone who cares I’m no fan of American Idol, and will hold on to my ducats instead of buying Adam Lambert’s new album (I will purchase Joshua Redman’s “Compass” though). Even with Lambert’s friend of Dorothy status confirmed , you won’t see me at any of his concerts or getting weepy because he’s part of the sisterhood. Who he brings home at night matters not (unless he’s being a shameless tart  by talking to someone I’m into!).

However, I will give the Idol runner-up credit for this line in his Rolling Stone magazine interview:

“I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.”

Hopefully all of Lambert’s fans will keep this in mind and not pester him for position papers on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, marriage rights, or whatever gay and lesbian political issue is out there. As fans we expect too much from the famous who happen to be gay. We want them to be role models for “the community” (please no sexual scandals like George Michael!) and to sound intelligent when talking about gay rights. Essentially we hand over to them spokesperson status because they happen to be on the screen. Lambert gets points for not playing the game.

As he said his job is singing and nothing else. To expect anything else is to place a burden on Lambert a straight crooner never has to deal with. That isn’t what freedom is about.

The 27-year-old singer from San Diego acknowledges in an interview that he’s gay, and says it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Says Lambert: “I’m proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.”

Lambert says he was inspired to audition for the Fox network singing competition after having a “psychedelic experience” at the Burning Man festival in Nevada.

Lambert says he knew “American Idol” was his “only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it’s fast and broad.”

We all knew Adam Lambert was gay. I’m a lesbian and even I could tell. Photos surfaced months ago of Adam lip locked with girls, boys, boys dressed as girls and a few where I couldn’t tell the sex of the other party in the photo.

But I can’t help but be disappointed that Adam chose not to (or was not permitted to) disclose his sexuality while Idol was still in progress.

The fact that previous Idol contestants have come out of the closet has been important and contributed to the overall visibilityof the gay community on mainstream television. Can’t argue with that.

But having an Idol contestant come out during the show would be an excellent litmus test for the tolerance of the American public. If Lambert’s votes had stayed strong, it would have been a success. If Lambert’s votes had dropped, the dip could have been used to bolster tolerance campaigns and anti-homophobia initiatives, especially amongst the teen population.

You see, it was a win-win for the gay community to have Lambert proclaim his sexuality while his fate was still uncertain. Instead, Adam will be on the cover of Rolling Stone in an Ellen-esque gay pronouncement.

And so, the “most glamorous idol ever” (according to Regis) is only gay when we all know he won’t be the Idol afterall. It is still a huge success for the visibility campaign. But, it’s not quite the gay triumph it could have been.

I’ll say it anyway because, barely minutes after Kris Allen was announced as the “upset” winner of American Idol, my Facebook feed was loaded with status updates declaring Adam’s loss a “hate crime,” with people vowing to take the streets to protest (on the eve of the anniversary of the White Night riots, no less).

I trust that their histrionics were limited to message boards, and that the streets are safe from drama. There will soon enough be events worth marching about.

None of which is to diminish the importance of Lambert’s nearly winning America’s blockbuster musical talent competition as a more-or-less openly gay performer. Sure, it’s not DOMA, or DADT, or ENDA. But if greater issues always displaced lesser ones, there would be no justification for watching American Idol in the first place—or for art of any sort.

As for those who think that a contestant’s sexuality is nobody’s business, I’ll buy that the moment we apply the same standard to straight performers. Kris Allen’s wife, explicitly identified, was a regular presence. Third-placer Danny Gokey, as we heard repeatedly, was a widower. Family backstory is standard Idol fare. But Lambert, as Entertainment Weekly’s Mark Harris aptly put it, “was apparently made by the hand of God and left in a basket backstage at Wicked.”

Should Lambert have beat Allen? Lambert is the clearly more talented singer and performer, though Allen is not without his charms.

Lambert is also queer—in the broad sense of that term. Put aside the internet pictures of him in drag making out with other guys. Many Idol voters were unaware of such pictures, despite their being aired, for example, by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. (O’Reilly did so under the guise of “Will America have a problem with this?” but it’s hard to believe he wasn’t trying precisely to provoke such a problem.)

Many Idol voters surely also missed Lambert’s skillful non-answers to media questions about his sexuality. ”I know who I am,” he told Entertainment Weekly when asked the gay question. “I’m an honest guy, and I’m just going to keep singing.”

But no viewer could miss Lambert’s flamboyant costumes, his outrageous high notes, or his eyeliner. Whatever his romantic interests, Adam Lambert reads queer. And that’s new territory for Idol. While Clay Aiken, the last gay near-winner, projected “wholesome,” Lambert screams “edgy.” (It’s a pitch-perfect scream, held impossibly long, which pierces the audience.)

And that’s why, despite Lambert’s superior vocal skills, Allen’s victory was unsurprising. American Idol contestants win by getting the most votes, and the average American doesn’t typically vote for queer. That’s part of what makes it queer, after all.

Nonetheless, Lambert seems no less a victor, and I hope he’s basking in his glory right now, eyeliner and all.

He made it to the final round while unabashedly being himself (in his appearance and performance, if not in direct response to interview questions). He has solidified his reputation as a consummate entertainer. He will no doubt go on to have a great career, far more successful than Allen’s, and probably even more successful than the career he would have had were he constrained by the packaging that comes with the “Idol” title.

Meanwhile, he has taught America something, if not about gays, then at least about “queers.” He has “mad skills”, yes—but he was also unfailingly polite, consistently expressing gratitude for the behind-the-scenes folks who developed his arrangements. He graciously expressed admiration for his competitors, including Allen. He was edgy, but not off-putting—all of which made it easier for people to see the main thing: his tremendous talent.

Besides injecting new life into Idol, Lambert also appears to have changed its culture. Idol has always struck me as a homophobic show, not just because of the noticeable absence of openly gay performers, but also because of the juvenile gay innuendo that regularly takes place between judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest. That innuendo seems to have dramatically decreased this season—no doubt partly due to Lambert.

It will be interesting to see, now that Lambert must shift his attention from votes to sales, whether he chooses to talk more explicitly about his sexuality. I look forward to what he has to say. But I look forward even more to what he’s going to sing.

*************************************

John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. His column “The Gay Moralist” appears weekly on 365gay.com. Read more about him at www.johncorvino.com.

John will be a volunteer faculty member this year for Campus Pride’s Leadership Camp for GLBT students. For more about Campus Pride’s work, or to make a donation on John’s behalf to support this year’s program, visit http://www.campuspride.org/.

I’ve been waiting to say this ever since the show started: “American Idol” is all trash and anyone who has placed in that bloody contest is a hack of the highest order.

I feel a whole lot better. For years I’ve had to endure endless conversations as people went on and on about some third tier singer and how he/she was rated by Paula Abdul, a ninth tier singer. Slight detour: am I the only one to find it ironic that Abdul, Miss MC Skat Kat, is a JUDGE for a singing contest?! That’s like putting me on the committee that decides the Pulitzer Prize.

I’ve had to sit around adults, grown adults, getting into arguments about which singer was better and if the announcements of some mean SOB from Britain were fair. These same people could never discuss with detail the freaking Iraq War, but they could go on about how clothes choice ruined a run to the final moment. And people, if you don’t trust me about that show’s evil nature, I submit this: “American Idol” introduced to the world the dank phenomenon called ClayManiacs.

Call me a snob, a bitter old fat queen who doesn’t understand pop culture, or a hater of vibrant talent. Say what you will, but that show has destroyed the American song book and the professional life of the singer. More people in this beautiful, lovely, fat, and contented country know Ruben Studdard but know nothing about Cassandra Wilson or Abbey Lincoln.

Unfortunately though, no one cares what I think so the show gets an audience and people foam over the results. I hear one of the finalists is Adam Lambert and his sexuality is up for question. Why his bed mate(s) is any one’s business confounds, but that is neither here nor there. I know for gay solidarity I’m supposed to be all about Lambert winning, but couldn’t care less. Win or lose, I’ll be utterly dismissive because he will have the whiff of that show all over him.

My rant is done. Now I’m plugging into my iPod and listening to someone who probably would not win an “American Idol” contest (Simon would despise her tone) but stands above anyone on stage tonight or any other Idol champ: Ella Fitzgerald. Go crazy with the Idols if you must. I got the First Lady of Song.

She was also glued to her computer, chatting with members of the pro-Lambert Facebook group she founded. And to her phone, too, where she voted for Lambert at least 100 times in two hours.

“My husband thinks I’m totally nuts,” says the 35-year-old Illinois mom, an office manager for a moving company.

Perhaps, but there are millions just like Murrell, fans whose passions have been inspired by the unabashedly campy, cheerfully over-the-top Lambert, with his back nail polish, his “guyliner” and that jet-black, asymmetrical mop of hair that has no place in the natural world.

But then, perhaps nothing about Lambert, who will face the late-blooming Arkansas crooner Kris Allen in next week’s finale, is truly of this world; all season long, the judges have praised the rocker in terms sometimes touching on the metaphysical.

“You are a rock GOD!” crowed Kara DioGuardi after his rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” “Dawg, you’re one of the best we’ve ever had on this stage,” opined Randy Jackson after Lambert’s “Cryin’,” by Aerosmith. Simon Cowell had no comment for Lambert’s “Mad World,” by Tears for Fears – just a very rare standing ovation.

And leave it to Paula Abdul to come up with this one: “You dare to dance in the path of greatness,” she told Lambert after “Born to be Wild” – not even one of his better-received performances.

If the judges have seemed to gush over Lambert, it was more surprising to see a guest singer express her unsolicited preference – during her performance. Katy Perry, performing “Waking Up in Vegas” on Wednesday, started out in a glittery cape emblazoned with Lambert’s name.

Of course, there’s always a certain mania surrounding “American Idol” contestants. But this year feels a little different. “There definitely is a new level of hysteria this season,” says Caryn Ganz, deputy editor of Rolling Stone’s Web site, rollingstone.com, which gets hundreds of emotional fan posts every time it recaps an “Idol” show.

Partly this can be attributed to the high quality of the final four singers – besides Lambert and Allen, who now face a very competitive finale, with only a million out of 88 million votes separating them this week, there was the gravelly voiced Danny Gokey, voted off Wednesday, and the throaty teenager Allison Iraheta, whose duet with Lambert to “Slow Ride” was a season favorite.

But it’s also because Lambert has evoked so much passion from both fans and detractors. One thing on which almost everyone agrees: The dude, as Jackson would say, can sing. (The word “pitchy” does not apply.) But his critics are annoyed by the embellishments, particularly his high-frequency wails – glorious high notes to fans, but screams to others.

“Adam outclassed Danny and Kris? How? By out-shrieking them?” wrote the aptly named “awfuladam” on newsday.com’s blog this week. “Danny and Kris SANG their songs, Adam, well, I don’t know what the heck you call that but it wasn’t singing.”

For Lambert fans, the low point this season was the night two weeks ago when the rocker, long assumed to be out in front by a mile, was suddenly relegated to the bottom three vote-getters. On rollingstone.com, there was an outpouring of fury and hurt. “We got 500 posts after that night’s recap, 80 percent of them outraged,” says Ganz.

On her own blog, Idol Tracker, Ann Powers found herself shocked at the depth of her feelings.

“I was haunted by my own reaction to Lambert’s near-elimination. Why do I care so much that he makes it? It’s embarrassing,” she wrote. Then, touching on his potential outcast appeal, she remembered checking out a David Bowie album as a youngster and thinking, “This guy is really strange and proud of it, I could be proud of myself, too. I look at Adam Lambert, and hear him sing, and think he might give that gift to some kids out there.”

Lambert, 27, has spoken of his childhood in San Diego, and how he always loved dressing up, but wasn’t exactly into soccer. He performed in musical theater as a youngster, and more recently appeared in the Los Angeles cast of “Wicked.” He once appeared opposite Val Kilmer’s Moses in “The Ten Commandments: The Musical” – getting the show’s only good notices.

Lambert’s theater training clearly infuses his “Idol” performances, both in his supreme confidence and in his penchant for changing his look to fit the song. While Allen, a gentle, 23-year-old worship leader who favors singing with his acoustic guitar, prefers T-shirts and jeans – one can’t imagine he stretches his “Idol” wardrobe allowance – Lambert turned up in a silvery suit and 1960s pompadour on Motown night.

But most often, he’s in androgynous rocker mode – the earrings, the nail polish, the heavy eyeliner. He’s been compared to such artists as David Bowie, Steven Tyler and Pete Wentz.

Then there’s the widespread speculation – actually, a widespread assumption – that Lambert is gay, based on widely viewed photos on the Web that appear to show him kissing another man. Lambert himself has said nothing – other than to say he has nothing to hide. But plenty of people are talking nonetheless: The latest cover of Entertainment Weekly headlines Lambert as “The Most Exciting American Idol Contestant in Years,” with an asterisk to the line: “And Not Just Because He Might Be Gay.”

The media interest stems mostly from the question of whether a gay or bisexual singer could win “American Idol.” Clay Aiken, the season 2 runner-up, did not come out until years later. But with Lambert, whatever his sexuality, the question seems beside the point: People don’t seem to care. He has a varied fan base, and gets his share of the tween girl screams in the “Idol” theater, though not as many as Allen, a heartthrob for the younger set. Some even carry signs saying, “Marry me, Adam.”

“I think fans have never really cared about people’s persuasions in the world of entertainment,” says Joyce Valach, 60, of Naperville, Ill. “As long as they’re entertained, they’re entertained.” She herself was long torn between Lambert and the much different Gokey, an understated church music director from Milwaukee.

But Murrell, the founder of the Facebook group, says she gets offended when some fans write anti-Lambert posts, saying that he looks like a freak.

“I say to them, ‘You just don’t know what makes people unique and different,’” she says.

“But you know, ‘Idol’ just brings out the craziness in some people.”

The Grammy-winning singer appeared on the hit Fox show Wednesday to urge viewers to support the Text ALIVE Challenge, which aims to bring medicine and medical care to children and families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

Keys asked fans to text the word “alive” to 90999 to donate $5 to Keep a Child Alive, the charity she co-founded and for which she serves as global ambassador. She also introduced a beneficiary of the charity, 15-year-old Rwandan rapper Noah, who performed on the show.

Keys began the Text ALIVE Challenge while touring with her latest album, “As I Am.”

“It was really the first time anything like that had been done,” Keys said in an interview Wednesday. “It was successful enough to encourage us to keep spreading the word in a forum like this.”

The seeds of her “Idol” appearance were planted last year at Keys’ annual charity gala, the Black Ball, where “Idol” creator Simon Fuller was honored. Noah performed at the event, and Fuller “was so taken by his story” that he invited Noah to appear on the hit show, Keys said.

His appearance with Keys also re-introduces a charitable element to the show. Its annual fundraising program, “Idol Gives Back,” was canceled in December. Last year’s broadcast raised more than $64 million and featured an all-star lineup including Bono, Brad Pitt and Miley Cyrus.

“This was kind of a way to keep a give-back element in effect and for Noah to be seen and heard,” Keys said, adding that the teen entertainer sings about the AIDS pandemic and life in Rwanda.

“He’s dealt with probably more than any of us will ever have to in our entire lifetime,” she said. “For us to help people like him in his situation with Keep a Child Alive, and with everyone watching being able to know that even with all the hardships they might be going through, there’s always someone going through something far worse, so to help someone other than yourself is really a noble thing to do.”

Giving just $5 makes it easy for people from almost all economic strata to help, she said.

“You buy four of your favorite ring tones and that’s what you spend, if not more,” she said. “It puts everything into perspective … For the cost of probably less than you would spend at Starbucks, you can help someone like Noah.”

Donation texts will be accepted until June 1. The $5 charge will appear on donors’ phone bill.