TV Guide Online: How ironic was it that after you got the boot last week, you had to sing a song titled, "You Can't Win."
Charles Grigsby: It was [ironic]. My family was saying that, too.

TVGO: What did you do afterwards?
Grigsby: Partied.

TVGO: Vanessa spent the night of her dismissal drinking alone in her hotel room. Please tell me you didn't do the same.
Grigsby: After Vanessa got voted off, we all supported her in every way possible. And when I got voted off, everyone supported me as well. But she stayed to herself, partied with herself. Some people take situations differently. For her, she just felt like being alone. Me, on the other hand, I wanted the support, because I realized that it was going to be a while until I see them again.

TVGO: Where was the party?
Grigsby: We went to the Hard Rock Café. A [large contingent] of fans came too. I don't know how they found out we were going to be there. I got a chance to meet them and sign autographs...

TVGO: Did Simon, Paula or Randy show up?
Grigsby: No, none of the judges.

TVGO: Who are you going to miss most from the group?
Grigsby: I bonded with everybody. That's my family. But to be honest, the ones I grew closest to [came from] my first group of eight, which is Kimberly, Trenyce and Julia.

TVGO: Who do you think is going to win?
Grigsby: I don't know who's going to win, [but] I'm really rooting for Trenyce and Ruben, even though I love Clay. They've been consistent throughout the whole competition. I love Clay; he's awesome. When it gets down to the top three or four, it's going to be real tough. I can already see it.

TVGO: Was it tough to focus on the competition last week with the war going on?
Grigsby: Definitely. When we all heard that we were about to go to war, we put [everything] on hold. American Idol wasn't even on our minds. We were watching [all the news coverage] on the big screen on the stage.

TVGO: What are you going to do next?
Grigsby: I have all kinds of things lined up. Since the Oscars were in town, I got a chance to talk with and meet celebrities, movie directors, record producers, people wanting me to endorse products and commercials...

TVGO: Where did you meet these folks?
Grigsby: The hotel I was staying at in [Los Angeles], most of the celebrities were staying there too...

TVGO: Who did you meet?
Grigsby: Angela Bassett, Tarji P. Henson from the movie Baby Boy, [rap bigwig] Russell Simmons...

TVGO: Angela Bassett watches American Idol?
Grigsby: Yeah.

TVGO: What did she say to you?
Grigsby: She just gave me a big hug and said, "Baby, you were robbed. You didn't deserve to get voted off. I loved you from the beginning." She was wishing me all the best. It's funny, because everyone I've run into and networked with said I should move to L.A.

Sorry, Pulp Fiction fans. If you plan to see Basic this weekend 'cause it's the first time Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have done a film together since Quentin Tarantino's 1994 cult hit, you'll be sorely disappointed. In this army base whodunit, the duo doesn't share enough screen time to say "Royale with Cheese." Was Travolta disappointed?

"Oh, probably," he admits to TV Guide Online, "but it worked even in parallel. I felt like, as long as you were seeing a scene with me, a scene with Sam, then a scene with me, it worked on its own level."

At least they chilled together off-screen. "Sam and I just have this thing where we're very relaxed with each other," Travolta says. "We have the 'hang' energy."

Speaking of the role that relaunched his career, Travolta confirms Tarantino may bring his gangster character, Vincent Vega, back from the dead in a Pulp prequel of sorts, co-starring Reservoir Dogs's Michael Madsen. "I think it's something that Quentin created as a possibility," he says. "But of course, I would never put too much on it, because he really luxuriates in his career. He takes [his] time."

The mystery surrounding Nicole Kidman's Academy Awards acceptance speech has been solved! Producers cut to a commercial break before the Oscar winner was finished with her thank yous, leaving the telecast's 33 million viewers wondering, "What'd we miss?" Turns out, the Hours star gave a shout-out to her acting coach, Susan Batson.

"They drowned me out," Kidman says. "They heard it in the [Kodak Theater], but they didn't hear it on television." (Unlike fellow Aussie Russell Crowe, who threw a hissy fit when the BAFTA folks gave him the hook in 2002, Kidman's, er, nose was not out of joint about the slight.)

Well, with that head-scratcher behind us, we can move on to more important matters. Like, does scoring the golden guy wipe away any of Kidman's well-documeted insecurity when it comes to her acting chops? As you'll recall, the Moulin Rouge crooner tried to back out of The Hours at the last minute over fears that she would bomb as Virginia Woolf.

"I don't think that there is any sort of confidence in relation to winning an award," she admits. "I don't have that confidence in relation to the next role that I do just because I won this now. I'll still go back thinking, 'Oh my gosh. I'm going to get fired.'