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Ellen Gray: Why do stars of medical dramas keep seeing things?

SO MUCH television, so little time: * If we've learned nothing else from TV this season, it's that hallucinations are nothing to fool around with, "Ally McBeal" and her dancing baby notwithstanding.

SO MUCH television, so little time:

* If we've learned nothing else from TV this season, it's that hallucinations are nothing to fool around with, "Ally McBeal" and her dancing baby notwithstanding.

Whether you're seeing (or, worse, having sex with) dead fiances (ABC's "Grey's Anatomy"), your best friend's dead girlfriend (Fox's "House") or dead service buddies and animated babies (Fox's "Bones"), you're looking at some kind of medical emergency.

Unless, of course, you're starring in NBC's "Medium" or CBS' "Ghost Whisperer."

On "House" (8 tonight, Channel 29), the problem seems not to have been a brain tumor but House's (Hugh Laurie) longtime addiction to Vicodin, a subject that's been dealt with before on the show, though usually less colorfully.

Doesn't hurt to show that there are profound consequences to the abuse of prescription drugs, even among the brilliant.

That the storyline gave "House" producers a chance to bring Anne Dudek back for yet another turn as Dr. Amber Volakis - a character who was first fired, then killed off but keeps on ticking - was a bonus.

As for that final scene between House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), I'm just hoping that wasn't a hallucination, too.

* With ABC having canceled "Eli Stone" (its final episodes are scheduled to air at 10 p.m. June 20-July 11), Fox probably leads television in Hallucinations Per Hour, and its HPH score is likely only to increase with the May 26 premiere of "Mental," a drama set in a Los Angeles hospital's psychiatric ward that tries, when it's not pairing off the doctors, to show what's going on in the heads of patients.

* If you're a Comcast digital subscriber who doesn't get HBO but is looking for free access to HBO's "The Alzheimer's Project," you should find it under the "Get Local" portion of the On Demand menu until June 8. Because of misinformation supplied by Comcast, that information was incorrect in Thursday's column.

* Yes, I'm still annoyed that "American Idol" voters sent Allison Iraheta home - and during Rock Week, no less - but hope that this means that she'll get to finish high school, maybe even college, before embarking on what should still be a successful career.

But while I was saddened by Allison's departure, I can't say I was surprised, given how male-focused both the judges and the fans have been this season.

The people at TV.com, though, seem not to have seen last week's ouster coming.

"Allison had been a front-runner in the TV.com 'American Idol' poll for several consecutive weeks and her departure was unexpected by more than four million TV.com users who voted for her this week alone," the Web site announced last week.

And, indeed, the numbers at TV.com - a CBS-owned video site - have Allison nearly 2 million votes ahead of Adam Lambert, her closest competitor.

But here's the thing, dawgs (as Randy Jackson might say): TV.com is not the boss of "American Idol."

And saying you "voted" there for Allison, or anyone there, is like saying you voted for president by calling a toll-free number announced by Ryan Seacrest.

* So is "the media" in the tank for Adam?

Let's just say he's on the May 15 cover of Entertainment Weekly behind the headline "Loving Adam Lambert: The Most Exciting 'American Idol' Contestant in Years," with the footnote, "And Not Just Because He Might Be Gay."

OK, so maybe a toe or two in the tank.

But think of it this way - can you really say that Danny Gokey or Kris Allen is even the most exciting "Idol" contestant this month?

* After seeing last week's premiere of Bravo's "The Fashion Show," the series that the network came up with to replace the departing "Project Runway," I'm even more confused by Lifetime's decision to hold off on airing the next, long-ago completed "Runway" season until Aug. 20.

Given the almost stitch-by-stitch knockoff of the Weinstein Company's creation - whose basic pattern Bravo has already used to create other, nonfashion shows - I'd have thought that Lifetime would have moved mountains to avoid having "Runway" fans even tempted to buy off the rack (or the sidewalk) instead.

Where's Tim Gunn when we really need him?

Accept no substitutes. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.