According to Marc Malkin of E! News, Jennifer Lopez has signed on to join Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler for the next season of American Idol but she is waiting for the ‘right moment’ to make the announcement.

Just a month ago, Jennifer Lopez told the BBC she was still debating her return to American Idol. “I don’t know. I haven’t been forced to make a decision and I’m glad about that because honestly I’m very on the fence about it,” Lopez said. “I had an amazing time doing it and I loved it, but I have a lot of other things happening…”

Appearing on the Today Show this week, Jennifer Lopez was still avoiding the question of whether fans would be seeing her on the next season of American Idol. “I love working on American Idol, love doing it,” Lopez told host Ann Curry. “I have no announcement to make as of this moment, but I promise, you guys will be the first [to know].”

Nikki Reed was wearing what appeared to be a sparkling engagement ring on the red carpet at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. When asked by E! News if she and American Idol‘s Paul McDonald were ready to tie the knot, Reed gushed, saying: “He’s the one. He’s the one.”

Paul McDonald admitted he and Twilight star Nikki Reed were an item after he was eliminated from American Idol in April. Reed met McDonald when the American Idol contestants attended the premier of her film, The Little Red Riding Hood, back in March. Reed reportedly said McDonald has been working on a bunch of songs inspired by her and plans on releasing a “Nikki Reed EP,” according to E! Online, which first broke the engagement story.

“I love him,” Nikki Reed told People last month. “I’ve never met anyone like him. I’ve never met anyone who has such a good solid heart and comes from such a good solid family and is just a genuine person.”

Related: American Idol Final Two Showdown

After the shocking eliminations of several top favorites this season against all reason, we’re left wondering why we should even try to predict the newest American Idol winner. This is a show where Taylor Hicks — bless him — should never have won and Adam Lambert lost out to that rather bland boy whose name we can never remember.

Still, it should be interesting to watch the final showdown between American Idol’s unlikely top two this season. I’d find it kind of fun if the little blond girl who nearly crawled into Steven Tyler’s lap during her first audition actually managed to stomp all over smirky country boy.

Then again, we haven’t seen a woman win American Idolsince 2007. And we’ve had some girls during those past years with pipes way bigger & better than Alaina’s.

I’ll be watching tonight but honestly it doesn’t really matter to me who wins this time around. James Durbin is the guy we’ll be buying records from at the end of the day. But that’s just me. What’s your opinion on who you think will take home the top prize in the American Idol results – and who really should have?

American Idol Top 3 - FOX

As much as it seems mind-boggling that Scotty McCreery and his deep throat might take the top Idol prize, we are reminded that a huge portion of the U.S. actually likescountry music. Plus, we guess he is kind of cute in his own way. After all, McCreery has never been in the bottom, but both Alania and Reinhart have. The girls are good, we give them that, but neither one of them really screams ‘star power’ to us. At this point, it just kind of feels like a ‘whatever’ in regard to who wins.

If it was a perfect world, we’d be trying to figure out whether James Durbin had the mojo to beat out Pia Toscano‘s hot body (and golden voice) in the finals. Alas, it is very hard to make any kind of predictions in a land where Taylor Hicks and Kris Allen are winners while Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert are losers…

In the end, if we HAVE to make a prediction, we’ll at least call it for Scotty McCreery to make it through to the final two. Just because he’s a guy. As for the girls, well, they are both blond. Does it really matter?

Lady Gaga Performing Monster - Photo by aphrodite-in-nyc, Wikimedia Commons

Although we are always happy to jump on board the Gaga train, we do have to wonder why on Earth the show producers decided to have her mentor during the week the contestants are required to perform Leiber & Stoller tunes. Then again, why the hell does American Idol keep dragging out these incredibly outdated and overdone themes? Is “Jailhouse Rock” or “Hound Dog” really the kind of music that is going to set teenage hearts pounding and launch the career of the next singing sensation? Could we at least move the music themes to sometime after the majority of the contestants were actually born?

Of all the remaining contestants, we can kind of see James Durbin having a little Lady Gaga in him there somewhere. Lauren Alainamight wish she did, but sorry hun, it’s just not happening. As for Haley Reinhart and Scotty Mcreery, well, we just want to watch Gaga’s face while they are singing. Just for funsies. Speaking of Haley though, we think it is a shame she didn’t learn enough from that fantastic duet with Casey Abrams. THAT is the kind of music that makes her voice sound heavenly divine. Her pipes were made for that genre. Too bad she really doesn’t quite seem to get that yet.

James Durbin for the win. Still calling it. Even with the echo of Adam Lambert hanging over his head.

Internet polls seem to disagree, however – it seems that rocker James Durbin is the current favorite to win, and Haley is pretty consistently at the bottom of the poll standings, sometimes trading places with Jacob Lusk, whom voters also seem to think is likely to go home soon.  We’ll see who’s right later this week!

He says his addiction left him with almost nothing, having sold a Porsche, a plane, and his home in order to pay for his cocaine habit.  Tyler has been in rehab eight times, and has only vowed to make it work this time because his son pleaded with him.  Also, Tyler says that being a judge on American Idol has made a difference, as he doesn’t want to embarrass himself on live television.

Apparently Jennifer and Marc are going to travel all around the American continents, searching for the best Latin performers in the most unlikely places.  The idea, of course, is to uncover talent that would otherwise die a lonely death, but I imagine the hosts and producers of the show stand to gain just a little bit of money and attention, as well.  They need to fire whoever came up with that name, though

A representative for American Idol says that this is simply not true – according to them, Kauffman and two of her friends sat in the floor section, in direct line of the cameras, and that they were nowhere near the back.  Certainly Kauffman most realize that Idol has the video evidence to back their story up, so there’s no telling where she thinks she’s going with this tale of fabricated discrimination.

Not everyone was surprised that things went this way, though – producer Nigel Lythgoe says that Pia was never even close to the top of the weekly results, and based on that he doesn’t think she would have had a chance at winning, anyway.  And the scandal of being eliminated has brought her a lot of attention, so this will probably work out well for her career.