American Idol finalist Jorge Nuñez—the one from Puerto Rico who doesn't annoy the hell out of us (hello, or hopefully goodbye, Tatiana!)—got a surprise text of support from two of his own idols, Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony.
The text came in from Marc's cell phone this morning to Ryan Seacrest, who shared the message with Jorge during his KIIS-FM L.A. radio show. It read: "Hey bro, just finished watching the show. This guy is really special. Please tell Jorge that Jen and I could not be prouder. We were in tears witnessing, honestly. Pure talent."
"That [was] so awesome!" Jorge told us in an interview later today. "I mean…if they're famous here you really can't imagine how famous they are in Puerto Rico. They're like the biggest people ever. I love them. I'm so happy."
We caught up with Nuñez and the two other contestants who sailed into the top 12 last night—visually challenged piano man Scott MacIntyre and R&B mother-of-three songstress Lil Rounds—and here's what they dished…
Scott says we can expect to see him in front of the piano in no time. (Yay! We've been waiting for this!) "I'll be blowing up the stage," Scott promises. "That means starting next week, hopefully when I'm back on a grand piano, if I can do that starting in the top 12, I'm going to do everything I can to sing my heart out and just bring my A game."
He certainly brought his sense of humor to last night's show when he poked fun at our own Ry-Ry over the missed high five earlier this season.
"I'm the last person who would ever be offended by someone trying to give me a high five, and it's happened to me my whole life because people forget," Scott says. "Honestly, sometimes it's nice when they forget for a while…He did the right thing and he reached out and he tried again and we did it. Everyone was probably wondering what was going on with that, so I had to return the favor the other night."
Well played, Scott. Well played.
Meanwhile, Lil Rounds is still reeling over judge Kara DioGuardi's high praise. I believe the words were "ridiculous vocals." (Ridiculous = goooood.) "Oh man, I thought that was the best comment," Lil tells us. "I really feel like I put my heart into whatever I'm singing. They bring up song choice, and the one thing I always say is you have to think about the lyrics. If it's something you can't relate to, then it's something you're not going to be able to give your all to."
Does Jorge Nuñez deserve such high praise from J.Lo and Marc? Do you think Lil Rounds and Scott are going to bring it next week?