‘Cougars 4 Cook’ sign was our first clue

Anne Ward, 50, of New York City, said she impressed by Cook’s “brotherly relationship” with Archuleta and the humility he showed when he didn’t react to Cowell’s acid-tongued commentary. Also: his frontman mystique.

“Here’s this guy who sings so great, he crosses genres, and he’s vulnerable, but yet, we didn’t know a lot about him. And he’s sort of soulful when he sings,” said Ward, who has downloaded almost all of Cook’s “Idol” songs.

Ward, a longtime fan of the show, said Cook “looks like a man, and he acts like a man,” and knows how to milk the camera — but not in an overt, smarmy way (think Constantine Maroulis in season four). She was initially wowed by his musical skills, but didn’t “feel the sex appeal factor” until his emotional performance of “Music of the Night” during Andrew Lloyd Webber week.

“It’s almost like a courtship,” Sharp said of gradual allegiance from other contestants to Cook. “It’s been like this slow burn, and all of a sudden our internal 16-year-olds got ignited.”

The icing on the cake, Sharp said, was Cook’s finale duet with ZZ Top — and the “Guitar Hero” commercial aired during the finale, an homage to Tom Cruise’s pants-less lip sync to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” in “Risky Business.”

“We’re the ones that salivated so heavily over Tom Cruise in ‘Risky Business’ that he really slid to superstardom on a trail of our spittle,” she said. “So to see David Cook — who we’re firmly in love with — put into those two things ... I mean, it was just a gift. It was a present.”

Archuleta did the exact same spot with similar choreography that aired later in the telecast, but it lacked the feral energy and intuition that Cook brought to the role. Cook looked like he knew what he was doing — but the would the angelic Archuleta really rock out in his skivvies if his parents left him home alone?

“They’re both very talented, but it really boils down to what does it for you: A sexy hot man or Webkinz come to life?” she asked. “Is your cell phone studded with glitter, or do you just have a regular cell phone like I do?”

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