Class, sincerity don’t cut it here

That sinking feeling is a revelation, America. Now that she’s bested one of this season’s most likable contestants, maybe people can start talking about how Haley Scarnato, not Sanjaya Malakar, is the true shame of this year’s “Idol.” The 24-year-old former wedding singer came off like a drunk debutante during her Tuesday performance of “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” But as usual, she sure showed a lot of skin. It’s a sad reminder of how even the dullest, most obviously packaged titillation outsells sincerity and class.

Gina Glocksen had those two qualities, but one thing must be said about the Manic Panic’d dental assistant from Illinois: She’s not much of a rocker chick. Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders singer Glocksen sometimes invoked, is a rocker chick -- she’s looked like Joey Ramone for 30 years and still projects real, unmanufactured heat. Gina has talent, but malleability and eagerness to please made her a wholesome presence on “Idol,” not a sower of subversion. By the classic definition, there’s only one rocker on “Idol” now -- and his initials are S.M.

-- Ann Powers

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Gina Glocksen may have gotten the best parting gift of any departing “Idol” yet: a crash course in musical credibility. When she sang Charlie Chaplin’s bittersweet “Smile” on Tuesday night, the performance that got her voted off the show, it was all sweet, no bitter. It’s a song that needs to break your heart while urging you not to sink into despair.

Giving it another shot Wednesday after getting the bad news, Glocksen this time seemed to truly feel, and project, the conflicting emotion Chaplin had in mind when he wrote it for “Modern Times.” The big lesson all these would-be Idols need is to believe what they’re singing.

-- Randy Lewis