No to Katharine

I must have been born with an immunity to McPheever, the bug that has carried Katharine McPhee all the way to the final round of ``American Idol." I feel absolutely no susceptibility to the artificial gleam in her eye. I have a deep resistance to her singing voice, as she bends long notes into screeches. And I will never succumb to her cutesy Broadway smiles and giggles, which she uses to compensate for what -- an inner void? Anxiety?

In short, when it comes to Katharine's lyric-forgetting, Mandisa-beating, Lesley Ann Warren-looking, stripper-bot appeal, I am unaffected, no matter how hard she tries.

And she tries. You can feel her straining for votes with each of her many bosom-shot outfits and poses. Ryan Seacrest did speak truth when, after Katharine blew ``I Have Nothing," he told her, ``For those who don't have their volume on, I'm sure you're going to get plenty of votes."

To me, Katharine McPhee should be quarantined inside a Cinderella suit at Disney World.

Yes, I know I sound cruel. But ``American Idol" is like a sports game, and trash talking is not just allowed, it's half the fun. Katharine is probably a very nice young woman -- her father, always so teary-eyed in the audience, surely feels that way. But I'm disappointed she has made it this far. There are so many Katharine McPhees already in the entertainment world, waiting in line at summer-theater auditions, good enough to song-and-dance their way into a Broadway chorus. She has none of the singular charisma that would help make the ``Idol" slot into something special.

Last year's winner -- Carrie Underwood -- was similarly generic and personality-impaired, unlike, say, Fantasia Barrino. But at least Underwood can sing. Katharine oversings, working so hard to convince us she's truly connecting to the song that she stands outside it. She seems to feign confidence and mastery instead of letting her vulnerability show.

I found her forced version of ``Over the Rainbow" terribly overrated. When she sits down on the stage, I know we're in for mugging meant to seem like emotion. Every time a guest expert praised her skills, I secretly wondered if he was being nice because he sensed her nervousness and didn't want to appear mean. Of course, all the guests this season -- including Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, and Kenny Rogers -- have been middle-aged men.

The competition hasn't been severe. Aside from Elliott Yamin and Mandisa, who were the show's true underdogs, and my favorites, McPhee has gone up against a series of competitors with either too much personality (Kellie Pickler) or too little singing ability (Bucky Covington). I can't say I'm a big Taylor Hicks fan, either; most of Simon Cowell's insults to Taylor ring true. He is a whole mess of tics, but at least he projects a geeky genuineness.

Taylor doesn't inspire me to the same heights of rah-rah absurdity that I felt for Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, and Fantasia. But still, he's the one I'd like to see win this week. I can handle a case of his boogie-woogie flu.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.