People: No more of our ink for Carly

On the day after her surprise ouster from “American Idol,” Carly Smithson was sounding oddly cheerful.

“Now I just get to be me, without a theme night,” she said Thursday.

Smithson, a deep-voiced singer with elaborate tattoos, didn’t quite fit in during an “Idol” season filled with pop-star faces.

“The boys are adorable … (but) it was definitely a struggle for the ladies,” she says.

This week, she worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who nudged her to switch from a ballad to the booming “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

“That was at the last minute,” Smithson says. “There are a lot of words in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ I stumbled.”

She got some wrong, but covered so well that the judges didn’t comment. The next night, they seemed stunned to see her voted out.

Smithson seemed happy about it, though: “I’ll finally be out of the cover songs and singing my own songs.”

She can also finish her tattoo, which even Webber assumed was of Amy Winehouse.

“It’s a geisha,” Smithson says. “You’ll see when its finished.”

She’d rather play it straight-up

“American Idol” judge Paula Abdul says she wants to be on “Dancing With the Stars.”

“It would be a phenomenal experience for me to be a student and to learn a form of dance that I’ve never been introduced to,” the singer/choreographer says of ballroom dance.

“I’ve never done partnering,” she adds. “If I even dabbled with it, I had to be the guy, and that’s not fun. I want to wear the pretty dresses like the girls.”

His 15 minutes is multiplying

California State University at Northridge has a new face on campus: infamous “Idol” reject William Hung, who transferred from Berkeley to pursue a math degree.

A real hoarse opera

Alicia Keys has scrapped her second concert this week, Thursday night in Cleveland, because of swollen vocal cords.

Last year’s “American Idol” winner, Jordin Sparks, was an opening act for the tour, but also is resting her voice under a doctor’s care.

Thumbs down, but not out

The Ebertfest film festival kicked off Wednesday in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., without its namesake: critic Roger Ebert, who’s recovering from a hip injury following a series of cancer-related surgeries.

The crowd cheered when Ebert’s wife, Chaz, said he might be well enough to show up later for the festival, which runs through Sunday.

Quoteworthy

Original “American Idol” co-host Brian Dunkleman, on leaving the show: “It was such a big mistake, it’s embarrassing. I didn’t think it was cool. If I had known it was going to run for 70 years, I would have sucked it up and become callous like the rest of them.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Al Pacino is 68. Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) is 63. Actress Talia Shire is 62. Actor Hank Azaria is 44. “Early Show” host Jane Clayson is 41. Actress Gina Torres (“I Think I Love My Wife”) is 39. Actress Renee Zellweger is 39. Actor Jason Lee (“My Name Is Earl”) is 38. Actor Jason Wiles (“Third Watch”) is 38.