‘Idol’ tops bachelor list

New York – “American Idol” Taylor Hicks is ranked as the No. 1 “hottest bachelor” by People magazine – and he’s looking for love.

The 29-year-old silver-haired crooner tops People’s list in the magazine’s new issue, on newsstands Friday.

Hicks says he wants to find a woman he exchanged glances with on a recent airline flight. Of the mystery blonde, he says: “We waved and did a double-take look. It seemed like something out of a movie.”

The magazine has set up e-mail and mailing addresses for the mystery woman to contact Hicks.

Other “hot” bachelors – who aren’t ranked by the magazine – include Matthew McConaughey, Nick Lachey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kenny Chesney, Ryan Seacrest, Jamie Foxx, Owen Wilson and Wentworth Miller.

Korn singer recovering

New York – Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis noticed odd bruises recently and has since been diagnosed with a blood disorder that prompted the Grammy-winning band to cancel the rest of the international leg of its tour.

“The doctors have determined that this was an isolated incident and that after a few weeks my recovery will be complete. I will be ready to rock on the Family Values Tour this summer,” the 35-year-old Davis said.

He was released from a London hospital after four days of treatment.

Davis told fans on Korn’s Web site Monday that he was diagnosed last weekend with an infection that prevents blood from clotting normally because of a low number of platelets, which are cells produced by bone marrow. It was brought on by an allergic reaction to medication, he said.

New poet laureate named

Washington – New Hampshire poet Donald Hall, who has chronicled life’s sorrows and celebrations in verse across seven decades, will be the next poet laureate of the United States.

His 15th book of poetry, this spring’s “White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006,” prompted The Washington Post to praise Hall as a rural poet in the Robert Frost tradition and note “the delightful variety of his work and the sheer charm of his voice.”

Hall’s first book of poetry, “Exiles and Marriages,” appeared in 1955. The widower of poet Jane Kenyon, who died in 1995, he published a memoir of their marriage, “The Best Day the Worst Day,” last year. Many of his poems commemorate death and loss in the simple, plainspoken style he employs.

Succeeding Ted Kooser as poet laureate, Hall will assume his duties this fall. He is to speak at the Library of Congress National Book Festival poetry pavilion on Sept. 30 in Washington and open the library’s annual literary series in October with a reading of his work.