McPhee Album in New Year

"american idol" runner-up katharine mcphee, the second-best thing about sherman oaks after the california chicken cafe, is pleased that the release of her debut album has been postponed to jan. 30th.

biz insiders agreed with kat that the original release date of just before christmas was a really bad time to sell a record. the first single will come out early next month.

meanwhile, those who caught early screenings of "alpha dog," the fictionalized account of a murder case involving young adults from the west san fernando valley, were surprised to hear what sounded like kat doing her version of "over the rainbow" in the film's opening credits.

turns out, the filmmakers used the late eva cassidy's decades-old version of the standard --- and it has almost the exact same arrangement as kat's.