How stupid is Kellie Pickler?

That's been one of the more fascinating questions "American Idol" has spawned this season.

The hicked-out hayseed with the tramp-on-your-street looks has dumbed her way this far into the competition, telling the judges she was sweating so much she had to wipe her armpits, thinking salmon was pronounced "sal-man" and generally behaving like the country mouse gone to the big city.

There's a feeling afoot that it's all an act, that Pickler has glommed onto a gimmick to help her coast past weak performances. If true, so far it has worked. But it leads to a bigger question, one asked not just of "Idol" but of all reality shows: Just what will you do to be on TV?

It's a question drawn into sharp focus in "American Dreamz," which opened in theaters Friday. It's a film satirizing "Idol," mocking it as more of a prefabricated, cynical television hit machine than a spontaneous talent show. Mandy Moore stars as Sally, an outwardly charming cutie with a competitive streak burning so deeply it practically singes her eyebrows. Naturally, Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant), the Simon Cowell-like host of "American Dreamz," can spot a fellow traveler and knows what makes for good TV.

Sally, like Pickler — like any contestant on any reality show — is playing the game. She's slipping into a role recognizable to viewers who don't want to see contestants so much as they want to see characters acting out plots, as they would in any drama. Happens all the time.

The first season of "Survivor" was the exception. No one thought the show would come to much — certainly no one dreamed it would not only still be on the air, but would help ignite an entire genre of television. So the castaways on the island that first time around just did what they did, trying to win a game with the cameras on.

Afterward, things changed.

No longer did contestants go into reality shows as wide-eyed innocents, ignorant of the pro-cess. Now they — and the producers of the shows — knew what viewers were looking for.

Surely everyone knows the people who crank out these shows have become so adept at editing and packaging contestants that they can manipulate not the results but at least the stories that get us to them.

"American Dreamz" also has some fun with the power of "American Idol," the sway it holds over the country. When you can use the popularity of your show to bargain on equal or better footing with the president's chief of staff over details of a TV appearance, you're sitting on something pretty powerful.

"American Idol," at least so far, has thrown its weight around only in the TV and recording industries. Politics, so far, is safe from its grasp. But who knows what the future will hold?

Besides more down-home musings from Kellie Pickler, that is. Until she's spotted leaving a Mensa meeting, anyway.

Bill Goodykoontz is the TV writer for The Arizona Republic. Read his blog and comment at goodyblog.az central.com.