KRISTY LEE COOK
If you love animals, you want Kristy Lee Cook to be the next Idol. Because this 24-year-old model/singer/log-cabin dweller adores nothing more than her barrel horse, Montana. Sure, she sold him for airfare to Philly, but she's competing on the Idol stage in part to get him back. So when Simon said her twangy performance of Journey's ''Faithfully'' was ''forgettable,'' he made it abundantly clear that he doesn't love God's creatures. And that he doesn't appreciate this Carrie-meets-Gisele Bündchen crooner. True, she's gotten unanimously high marks for only one song, ''Amazing Grace,'' and the judges didn't seem to appreciate her countrified ''Eight Days a Week,'' but sometimes a good Cook (no, not you, David) is an acquired taste. —Jessica Shaw