Back from 'Idol,' Jesse Langseth says Minnesota's cooler

Jesse Langseth knows one way in which Minnesotans are so much cooler than some folks in California and not just because of the temps here.

Returning to Minneapolis after her time on "American Idol" ended, Langseth noticed that she was attracting a lot of second looks. "That's what I love about Minnesotans. Even if they do [recognize you], they're not going to come up and bug you. It just doesn't happen. They'll maybe stare. I got some weird stares at the airport, but nobody actually came up and said anything."

And the worse place for being gawked at and bothered, in Langseth's experience, is "L.A. Big time. Which is funny because there are celebrities everywhere there. So you'd think they'd be used to it. Not a chance."

Langseth's boyfriend, Brad Cimaglio, who works in marketing, says he has noticed something else about Minnesotans. Not a lot of people have last names that end in vowels, he joked. "The state is all Hildegaard and Gustafson. Everybody's a Viking up here," said Cimaglio, who's from Chicago.

"Yeah, we are," replied Langseth, as they sat in the Fox 9 green room, "Leave us [alone], us Norskis. We're good people."

Won't get any argument from Cimaglio on that point, and he seems very content with his Minneapolis woman. They make a beautiful couple.

Now that Langseth's an "AI" alum, she has been advised to hang loose because the music offers will come. She'd like to be part of an acoustic band.

This is not a crime, but Lilly's owner Carroll Britton, owner of Carroll Britton Cosmetics and cat couturist, has taken great offense. "I dress her in onesies and dresses to stop the dogs from biting her and bothering her," she said.

My guess is that the dogs become fearful of Lilly because she looks crazy wearing clothes on top of her long, black fur. "She comes home the other day without her little blue fleecy pullover and I'm thinking, 'OK, who took the damn outfit off my cat?'" Britton said, noting, "I don't take clothes off your kids. She looked humiliated." Harold, her husband, said, Do you realize how wrong it is that you're even worried that somebody's taken the cat's clothes off? Thank you, Harold! "It's been a long winter and when you don't go on vacation, you find ways to amuse yourself," she said. Britton's still too old to treat her cat like a doll. And how does she know that the cat was humiliated about having her clothes removed as opposed to feeling demeaned about walking around the neighborhood in clothing? "She does like it," Britton said. "It's quite funny."

Neighbor Krista Doyle concurs, noting that her yard is treated like a catwalk by Lilly. "Wherever we are in the house she will walk [by the window] to make herself seen," Doyle said. "She did have her light blue sweater on and she looked gorgeous."

Given the legendary aloofness of cats, it's ironic how perfect Lilly, adopted a few years ago from the Humane Society, is for Britton: "The world works in mysterious ways. I wish my husband and the kid were as malleable."

With Carroll's penchant for a chemical-free household, Lilly became the natural solution to a mice problem. "Lilly takes an aerial plunge and pounces on them from the roof, which is pretty amazing because she's de-clawed. She eats her kills," Britton said. You'd think prey would see her coming, even though she's not decked out in blaze orange.

They missed the show None of the people who would cherish seeing Wayne Wilderson on one of the final episodes of NBC's "ER" was watching Thursday.

I called his folks, Drs. Frank and Idalorraine Wilderson, and when his mom answered, I complained that she hadn't told me in advance Wayne would be on the episode showcasing the return of George Clooney. "I didn't know," she said. "I'll turn it on."

Then I phoned Wayne, who lives in California. "I didn't know," he said. "They told me I would be on the first hour of the final two hours. I shot just one scene."

He didn't know Clooney was on this episode, either. "I met him before in New York, but I didn't see him when he was shooting his scenes," said Wayne, who said he's scheduled to shoot some pilots and more Fruit of the Loom commercials. A graduate of Breck and Boston College, Wayne has long been the "Purple Grape."