A few weeks back, Kelly Clarkson tweeted a photo of herself with Robin Williams, posing on the set of a CBS comedy pilot called The Crazy Ones.  Turns out she made a cameo as herself in the pilot, and now that CBS has now picked up the show for the fall, we’ll be able see her.  A sneak preview, however, is available online now.

The Crazy Ones is set in Chicago, and is about a father and daughter, played by Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who both work in advertising.  In the pilot, they try to persuade Kelly to sing a McDonald’s commercial, but she tells them she wants to change her image and “sing about sex.”

“They said I wouldn’t have to act, ’cause I suck at acting,” says Kelly in the preview.  “They said, ‘Well, you’re playing yourself.’ But it’s not myself!”

Kelly says she “lost” it during a scene where Robin Williams and another cast member try to come up with ways that Kelly can sing about sex, and still sing about McDonald’s.  Next, we see her in the studio singing a song called “It Ain’t the Meat It’s the Motion” — which is a real song, by the way — and simulating being in the throes of sexual passion.

The show’s executive producers say that Kelly was “amazing” in the episode, adding, “She rocked it!”

The Crazy Ones will air on Thursdays this fall at 9 p.m.

The Voice has become a game of musical swivel chairs.  Though Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green are expected to return to the NBC singing competition in the fall, the show isn’t cutting ties with their replacements, Shakira and Usher.

Shakira has confirmed that she is leaving The Voice after the current season. There have also been reports that Usher will do the same, with Christina and Cee Lo reclaiming the chairs they occupied for the show’s first three seasons.

However, Entertainment Weekly states that while Christina and Cee Lo will indeed return to The Voice in the fall, NBC is finalizing deals with Shakira and Usher to rejoin Adam Levine and Blake Shelton for the spring 2014 season. That would obviously mean that Christina and Cee Lo would go on hiatus again.

Adam, Blake and host Carson Daly will all be back for the next two seasons.

Right now, Bruno Mars is a trim guy who’s in great shape, as you can probably tell from his energetic onstage performances.  But the singer says he’s looking forward to the day when he becomes an overweight parody of himself, sort of like his idol, Elvis Presley.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Bruno, who’ll launch his Moonshine Jungle tour next month, says he foresees himself performing onstage years in the future, even though he no longer looks and sounds good.

“I would love to go away for a while and then be able to write a song that I feel just as strongly about as I did with ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ or ‘When I Was Your Man,” he laughs.  “I can’t wait for the reunion tour when I’m just huge and bloated, singin’ my songs seven keys down in Palm Springs.  And it’s gonna happen!”

Bruno’s Moonshine Jungle tour launches June 22 in Washington, D.C., and he says unlike some pop artists, he doesn’t plan to go overboard on the special effects when it comes to his concert production.  You won’t see him flying around the stage, for example.

“I don’t think I would feel too comfortable like, wearing a harness,” he laughs.  “I want the music and the sound to be rockin’, more important than the visual effects and tricks or whatnot.  I don’t want to get lost in that.”

He adds, “I’ve definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it’s a little more raw.  We always change it up, you know?  It’s live, and that’s a big element of the show.”

Bruno also doesn’t want to look out into the audience and see people watching the show through their smartphones.  He recently tweeted, “At the shows I want to see faces. I want to be able to sing to you. I want you to dance with us world. Put the phones down and lets dance!”

Emeli Sande went two for two at Thursday’s Ivor Novello Awards, which annually celebrate the best in British and Irish songwriting.

Emeli’s hit “Next To Me” was named Best Song Musically and Lyrically, as well as Most Performed Work — the latter takes into account how many times the song has been heard on the radio and on TV.   Unfortunately, she wasn’t at the London ceremony to pick up her trophies – she was in California performing on the American Idol finale – but she sure was thrilled, as she demonstrated on Twitter.

“If you followed me 2 years ago…you might remember me day dreaming about winning an Ivor!!” Emeli tweeted. “Wish I could have been there, that would have been one excited speech!”  She called the honor “the best news.”

Meanwhile, Calvin Harris, the man behind Rihanna‘s “Diamonds,” the Florence Welch collaboration “Sweet Nothings” and his own “Feel So Close,” was named Songwriter of the Year at the ceremony.

According to the BBC, the Scottish songwriter and producer called the honor “easily the greatest achievement of my entire life,” adding, “I can’t believe I was even let in the door of this whole ceremony.  It feels like I shouldn’t be here.”

Is Nicki Minaj leaving American Idol? She won’t say. She came backstage briefly after the show’s season finale Thursday and took three questions. One she chose not to answer was, “Are you coming back?”

Nicki was first asked why she didn’t perform Thursday night, since all the other judges did. She explained that she was committed to performing her song “High School” at this Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards, so she wasn’t allowed to perform on Idol. She also revealed that this season, she was supposed to premiere the song’s video during American Idol, but Fox rejected it as being too risque.

Nicki then said that she felt that newly-crowned champ Candice Glover was “absolutely” the right person to win. When a publicist said the rapper would take one more question, several were shouted, and Nicki chose to take one about whether or not she was working on new music — she begins work on her official third album in July. But as reporters shouted, “Are you coming back?” she blinked, smiled, and walked offstage.

Meanwhile, Candice’s debut album, titled Music Speaks, will be in stores July 16 and is available for pre-order now. The newly-minted champ will perform on Live with Kelly & Michael on Monday, and will also appear on PBS’s 24th Annual National Memorial Day Concert, and on the annual special A Capitol Fourth.

Candice Glover, a 23-year-old singer from St. Helena Island, South Carolina, was crowned the Season 12 American Idol champion Thursday night.

Candice was overcome with emotion performing her winner’s single, a R&B ballad called “I Am Beautiful,” as the show ended.

Kree Harrison is this season’s runner up.

The live ceremony took place at the Nokia Theater L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

Justin Bieber‘s been on the receiving end of a lot of bad press lately, but he has at least one staunch defender: his protegee, Carly Rae Jepsen.

Carly tells E! Online that when she looks at Justin, she doesn’t see some irresponsible, misguided kid who’s about to have a meltdown.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“All I see is an incredibly hard worker and a man who’s just passionate about what he does,” she tells E!, noting that Justin is “putting it on himself to take on a lot all at once.”  She seems to think that anyone who’s under that kind of pressure is bound to make a misstep or two.

“I think if anything I’m inspired by how hard he works,” she adds.  “I definitely want to add that to my own mantra.”

Shakira has confirmed reports that she’s leaving The Voice at the conclusion of the current season.  The singer has been filling in this spring for Christina Aguilera, who reportedly will return next fall after a one-season hiatus.

Shakira, who welcomed her son Milan in January, tells E! News, “I really enjoyed The Voice, but I also have a musical career and I’m also a mother now and my poor baby’s so tired flying such long distances. He already has more miles than any pilot. So I think I have to give him a little break, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Usher also probably won’t be back on The Voice next fall, because he’s set to begin work on a movie in which he’ll portray boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Cee Lo Green is expected to return to his usual chair on the NBC singing competition.

Lady Gaga has finally emerged from her social networking silence to communicate with her fans.  Posting on her LittleMonsters.com website, Mother Monster wrote the following message: “It is a dangerous place where we put ART, but sacred where we make it.”

The message is accompanied by a photo of Gaga crouching — we guess her hip feels better — while wearing black leggings, a black and white t-shirt and what appears to be an oversized black fedora.  She’s got a roll of tape in her hand — the kind of tape that police use for crime scenes, except it’s black and white — and she’s pulling the tape across her face to cover her eyes.  The tape reads “VERSUS Versace.”

What does this mean?  Well, “ART” is likely a reference to Gaga’s much-anticipated new album ARTPOP, which still doesn’t have a release date.  As for “VERSUS Versace,” Gaga reportedly provided the music for a fashion show held Wednesday night in New York City that served to relaunch Versace’s “VERSUS” fashion line.  Gaga is good friends with Donatella Versace, as most fans know.

Someone has posted a YouTube video compiling snippets of music heard at the show that aren’t part of any previously-released Gaga songs, which of course leads to speculation that the music is from ARTPOP.  This wouldn’t be surprising, since Gaga has used fashion shows in the past to debut snippets of her new music.

Demi Lovato just released her new self-titled album, and it’s on track for a #2 debut on the Billboard chart.  But don’t look for the singer to hit the road this summer to support it: she’s got to go under the knife.

Speaking with MTV, Demi said that she didn’t have any plans to go on tour this year, and mentioned her commitment to The X Factor as one reason for that.  But then she added, “Actually, this summer, I have to get my tonsils out.”  She then boasted, “I’m gonna do it without painkillers, though…’cause I’m a boss!”

It’s hard to tell if she’s joking.  She went on, “I got my wisdom teeth without any, I had dry socket, I broke my leg, and I was like, ‘No! I’m not taking anything!’”   When the interviewer agreed that Demi was, indeed, boss, she laughed, “I’m just sayin’…come at me!”

During her chat with MTV, Demi also spoke about her long friendship with Selena Gomez.  She admitted that there had been times in the past when the two ex-Disney stars had not been that close, but that’s all over now.

“Now we’re in a place where I think we realize that life is so short and when you have people in your life that love you so much, then you should always be around them,” Demi said, adding, “She’s gonna be a big sister and I wanna be around for that…she’s talented, she’s beautiful, and she will always be close to my heart.”

Demi also revealed that she loves Selena’s new single “Come and Get It,” adding, “I went on vacation…and that’s all I listened to, and when it comes on the radio, I turn it on really loud and tell everyone to shut up!”