Seeing all, telling nothing

More than 45 million votes came in Tuesday night, Ryan tells us.

But hey, Paula already knew that.

And, yes, I'm going to belabor the point -- because how many times last week were we reminded that Brooke had started her song over?

Starting with Paula, who last night managed to review Jason Castro's second song before he'd sung it -- making what Brooke did seem positively ordinary.

Paula also probably already knew that Season 4's Constantine Maroulis and Season 6's Gina Glocksen would eventually be reduced to talking about "Idol" on a Fox Reality channel show (and being chatted up by Ryan about it to help kill time).

After the break, Ryan faces the elephant in the room -- and decides to walk around it.

Seems he's read bad things about Paula after Tuesday's debacle and wants us to know that "the rumors are not true. She's part of our family and we love her."

Um, the rumors weren't that she wasn't invited for Thanksgiving this year.

Oh, and Jason Castro's already safe. So  we know that whatever happens tonight -- ask Paula to tell you -- it's going to be wrong.