A foot massage, a house for her mom and a lifetime supply of chicken.
She might want to get a bigger freezer too.
With an hour to think about it, Melanie Amaro has already tallied up her dream purchases with the million she earned Thursday night after being named the “The X Factor’s” first winner.
“Life will change a lot,” she told People.com. “The most I have ever had before was 0, if I was lucky.” The college freshman and piano teacher from Sunrise, Fla., plans to buy her mother a new house because, as she deadpans, “The one we live in now sucks.”
Her landlord now regrets voting for her.
But the chicken is for her. “I can’t live without it,” she says. “It’s my favorite food.”
After 40 million votes were tabulated Thursday, Amaro, 19, defeated burrito slinger and second place finisher Josh Krajcik, 30, and third place finisher Chris Rene, 28, a former garbage man and recovering addict from Santa Cruz.
“It was a relief when it was over,” says Krajcik, who will return home to Ohio on Saturday to “decompress” for a week with his family before returning to Los Angeles next week to get back to work.
“I felt pride for Melanie and pride for myself,” he told People.com. “She deserved to win; America decided, and she’s got an amazing voice.”
In other words, he wants a loan.
Rene, meanwhile, hopes to sign a deal with his mentor L.A. Reid, but for the near term, Rene says he will celebrate the night “with a Red Bull. Everyone who knows my music and my story, a lot more people have accepted me than I thought, and that’s really beautiful.”
Amaro is celebrating her win with family and friends — but she’s already thinking about that next step: her debut record.
“I can do ballads,” she says, “but I want to show people there is more. I can do anything if I put my mind to it.”
After the show, her mentor, Simon Cowell, was beaming with pride.
“She was a good contestant because she thought long and hard about how she would interpret songs,” says Cowell. “Every week we were discovering something new in her.”
Cowell adds that four labels are interested in signing Amaro — and they plan to make their decision on Friday. “America got it right,” adds Reid. “My advice to Melanie is save some of that money and don’t turn down a song.”
SINGER SAYS HE ALMOST DIED: George Michael appeared in public for the first time since being rushed to a Vienna hospital last month with a serious case of pneumonia, telling reporters, the illness nearly killed him.
Michael spoke to reporters outside his London home Friday, saying doctors spent “three weeks basically keeping me alive. It was by far, the worst month of my life.”
Wow. This from a guy who had to share royalties with Andrew Ridgeley.
Michael choked up, insinuating he had been in a coma during his time in the intensive care unit. “I spent the last 10 days since I woke up literally thanking people for saving my life.”
Michael canceled his European tour, but said Friday he’ll play a bunch of make up dates, including a private concert for the doctors who pulled him through.
PINK HEARTS DOGS: Pink spent $5,000 to pay for emergency lifesaving surgery on a puppy that had been tossed in the L.A. river and left for dead, according to TMZ.
The singer was surfing the Internet when she stumbled upon the dog’s story, sources said. She contacted the Ace of Hearts animal rescue organization and offered to pay for any medical expenses needed to save the dog’s life.
The dog has allegedly since been adopted by a loving family.
“I hope everyone out there gets a big hug and feels super duper special at least three times this holiday,” Pink tweeted Wednesday. “Even if it’s from a stranger. Hugs are healthy.”
THIS SOUNDS SERIOUS: French luxury brand Louis Vuitton is suing Warner Bros. over the use of a Louis Vuitton knockoff bag in “The Hangover: Part II.”
According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York on Thursday, an airport scene in the film makes use of a counterfeit bag made by a company named Diophy, which is currently being sued by Louis Vuitton for trademark infringement.
During the scene, Zach Galifianakis’ character, Alan, warns the character Stu (played by Ed Helms), “Careful, that is … that is a Louis Vuitton.” The French company objects to both the movies use of its trademark, and the characterization of the bag as a real Louis Vuitton. According to the suit, Warner Bros. is “explicitly misleading the public about the source of the Diophy Bag” and undermining the company’s enforcement efforts against counterfeits of its product.
Good point. The public, no doubt, is seriously adversely affected. It’s like if Global Warming melted icebergs and ruined all the purses in France.
According to the suit, Louis Vuitton objected to Warner’s after the film’s opening, but the company still released the film on DVD with the footage included.
Citing a previous lawsuit over the film — during which Warner’s said it was considering altering a scene that featured a tattoo that might have violated a copyright — Louis Vuitton argues that altering the airport scene to eliminate the company’s trademarked design would have been an easy fix.
The company wants the court to permanently enjoin Warner’s from using its marks in any way, and order the company to surrender all copies of the film containing the marks. It also wants triple damages on all profits that Warner Bros. may have amassed from using Vuitton’s marks, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
Really? Because of a stupid purse? Good to know everything in Europe is so hunky-dory that this is a big deal.
THE MASSES LOVE BATMAN: “The Dark Knight Rises” has made iTunes history.
The new trailer, which went online at 10 a.m. Monday, was viewed more than 12.5 million times on iTunes in the first 24 hours, Warner Bros. announced Friday.
Teasing Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, which opens July 20, 2012, it broke the record for most combined downloads through the iTunes Movies Trailers site and the iTunes Trailers iOS app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The record was previously held by the trailer for “The Avengers,” which was released in October and had more than 10 million iTunes views.
In the new trailer, villain Bane (played by Tom Hardy) blows up a football field. The trailer also features Anne Hathaway in the role of Catwoman — or at least as her alter ego, Selina Kyle — as well as fellow Batman newcomer Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
(Source http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_19610212)
