Idol Worship: Megan Joy's Chirpy Departure

We tried to contain our own joy when Megan got eliminated on Wednesday night. After all, she gave it everything she had, amused us to no end, and made an otherwise typical Idol season a little less predictable (with the exception of Adam Lambert, of course). But we breathed an even heavier sigh of relief after we heard Megan's exit interview on Thursday morning. Turns out the tattooed tweetie was going to sing Phil Collins' "Separate Lives" for next week's Year They Were Born theme. "It’s a beautiful [song] and I was ready to show the world that I can belt it like the rest of them," Megan told reporters.

Now, besides the fact that we were in junior high when the movie White Nights came out (a cold war classic starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines and Isabella Rossellini) and that we loved the song, a duet with Collins' and backup singer Marilyn Martin (who, we've since learned, is now a realtor in Nashville — thank you, Wikipedia), we can't imagine Megan hitting that key line in the bridge. You know the one: "You build that wall and you make it stronger!" We shudder to think.

But alas, we dodged that bullet. As for Megan, the Sandy, Utah beauty seemed elated to be heading home to her son, and felt like she accomplished what she'd set out to do. "I wanted to make the tour, that was my only goal," she said. "I didn’t ever put any expectations on myself. I just wanted to enjoy the ride; whatever happened, happened."

So what's next for Megan? For starters, she revealed, a new tattoo: "I’ve had a lucky ring that I’ve worn the entire time, and I’m going to have that tattooed on my ribs." Sounds painful, but probably no more so than the gut punches Simon's been lobbing at her for the last few weeks. "He was pretty hard on me," Megan admitted, "but I’ve got no beef with Simon. I don’t think he really has any with me." — Shirley Halperin