Ashley Borden, who's worked with Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera, said looks can be deceiving.

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One performance strikes some sparks, if only in spurts: Mandy Moore's Sally, a small-town girl who emerges as Omer's main singing competition on the show.

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In his quest to find the next batch of freaks and hopefuls to appear on the show, the host happens first upon Sally (Mandy Moore), an innocent small-town schemer with a lumpen boyfriend (Chris Klein), and then upon Omer (Sam Golzari), an Arab terrorist on a personal crusade not so much to blow up the world as to dazzle it with show tunes.

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