It's no fancy-schmancy album cover art, but it sure is pretty.

American Idol champ Kris Allen has unveiled the music video for his first single, "Live Like We're Dying," and overall, it's pretty standard. A guitar-wielding Allen performs his song in the middle of the desert on a larger-than-life-size digital clock, while countless unexplained tattered and torn curtains blow in the wind around him.

You know, that old chestnut.

The former Idoler does what he can to turn up the heat on the small screen, at one point literally throwing what looks to be a gigantic fireball. 

On the other hand, as videos of the coffeehouse variety go, it's not too shabby.

You decide: Does this debut make a big splash or is it just another drop in the bucket?

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Wait, there's more. Check out The Big Picture gallery for everthing happening in Hollywood today.

Just in time for Halloween, the Glampire himself has loosed upon the ever-critical Interwebs the first single/title track from his debut album.

Described by Adam Lambert as "dance music with a glam-rock shuffle beat," "For Your Entertainment" premiered on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM radio show this morning and is currently streaming on Lambert's official site.

While the cut may not show off the American Idol runner-up's pipes as much as his reality stint did, it more than defined his style.

And ferocity...

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http://twitter.com/adamlambert/status/5232323034; rcarecords.com

Call it the twinkle defense.

The glam, campy and overly dramatic Adam Lambert has confounded his critics by releasing an apparently indefensible album cover that's (wait for it) glam, campy and overly dramatic.

Who saw that one coming?

But the American Idol runner-up has heard his haters' battle cries and is rallying to his own defense, taking to Twitter to justify—but absolutely not apologize for—his artistic vision as rendered on his inexplicably controversial For Your Entertainment debut.

And for those who find it a bit too outlandish, well, that just so happens to be the look he was going for.

"Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy," he wrote this morning. "It's an omage [sic] to the past. It IS ridiculous.

"For those that don't get it: oh well…Glad to have gotten your attention," he added. "Androgyny. Rock n Roll."

And, of course, controversy. Like any good rock 'n' roll star.

(Originally published Oct. 29, 2009, at 11:01 a.m. PT)

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Does Adam Lambert swing both ways?

rcarecords.com

We've always known subtlety isn't Adam Lambert's speciality.

The glamtastic former Idoler has unveiled the cover of his upcoming debut album, For Your Entertainment, due out Nov. 24, and if you're of the camp that thinks more is more, this artwork's for you.

From the blue shininess that does double duty as a hairy fedora and fingerless gloves to the hallucinatory, starry background, we figure Lambert had one of two things on his mind when he posed for this inarguably pretty picture:

"Look into my eyes and feel my music" or "Ha ha, look how dramatic I am!"

He told E! News last month that the folks at 19 Entertainment were being "completely supportive and collaborative" as they worked to facilitate his "artistic vision."

Well, without having heard the songs, we can't thank the producers yet, but hats off to their hair-and-makeup department.

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Call us crazy, but something about this album makes us ask the question, Who's Cuter Without Makeup?

Alexei Hay for DETAILS

We blame Lady Gaga for this.

After working with her on his new album (the rather lamely named For Your Entertainment), Adam Lambert now says his lips are made for smooching—either sex.

"I am gay, but I like kissing women sometimes," he admits in the new issue of Details. "Women are pretty. It doesn't mean I'm necessarily sleeping with them."

This little revelation came after a groupie encounter during the Idols Live Tour.

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Ray Mickshaw / FOX

Adam Lambert is like a modern-day Braveheart.

American Idol and 19 Entertainment may be putting out his debut album, but they're not taking his creative freedom—or so he claims.

"I think there's a little bit of a misconception out in the public that people that come out of American Idol are puppetted and kind of controlled," he tells E! News exclusively. "That hasn't been my experience one bit. They've been completely supportive and collaborative with me and all the powers that be are really trying to facilitate my artistic vision."

In addition to working with A-list producers RedOne (Sean Kingston's "Fire Burning"), Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera's "Keeps Getting' Better") and Ryan Tedder (the man behind the controversial Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson tracks), Lambert is writing some of his own stuff.

"For a handful of these songs, I've gotten to write on them," he says. "So I really feel I've gotten to inject a lot of this music on the album with my own personal vocal stylings and my own lyrical content. A lot of it talks about stuff I really care about and that I find interesting, so that feels really good."

In addition to his excitement about his album's debut on Nov. 24, Lambert can't wait to see Ellen DeGeneres take a on a certain verbose judge come January…

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Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images

Someone needs to pull the pen from Simon Cowell's fingers.

While we love it when the crotchety American Idol judge decides to air his dirty laundry in public (that Susan Boyle botch list was a classic), is an absurdly lengthy diatribe really necessary?

On the cusp of his 50th birthday next week, Cowell wrote a letter to himself published in yesterday's Daily Mail in the U.K. In it, he looks back on the past few decades, scolding himself for poor decisions he made in the '80s and '90s and patting himself on the back for the good ones.

It would be a good, self-deprecating, third-person about-face, but regardless of what he says, nearly 3,500 words makes for nothing but a puff (as in puff, the magic ego) piece.

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courtesy of Stephen Brown

Justin Guarini was the big winner last night.

The American Idol-bred celeb tied the knot Saturday with longtime girlfriend Reina Capodici at a private estate on the Delaware River, not far from the couple's Pennsylvania home, E! News confirms.

Guarini, 30, and Capodici read their own vows during the ceremony, which was presided over by a female minister from the Universal Church.

The newlyweds actually met in high school—long before Guarini's curly mop top was making tweens scream on the premiere season of Idol—but they didn't start dating until three years ago. They decided to get married in December.

Capodici has a 4-year-old daughter, Lola, from a previous relationship.

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Speaking of American Idol, check out all the celebs who will be featured guest judges in 2010, before the Age of Ellen begins.