Tuesday, February 27, 2007
American Idol
American Idol contestant Antonella Barba is now the talk of the town ever since her controversial pictures surfaced on several websites. The initial photos that surfaced were mildly scandalous, showing Barba, 20, and her friends topless at the beach and Barba consuming alcohol while being underage. Even more recently, photos from an anonymous source on various gossip blogs contained much illicit exposure of Barba engaging in a number of sexual acts and titillating poses, exposing much of her private parts. Ultimately, this prompted much speculation and rumors over her fate in the popular show American Idol.Antonella Barba, a top 24 finalist on season 6 of American Idol, is from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, is currently studying architecture at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Aspiring to be a star, she went to New York to audition made it through to Hollywood and became a top 24 finalist.At this point, Barba, as well as her family, have not released any comments regarding the circulating photos. While a number of the photos come into view as Barba, other photos are just allegations and presumptions against the aspiring singer. American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe said, We have really good background checks on everybody, and we deal with that every season...It's sad, isn't it, that your best friends are the ones that come forward with information that will go to Smoking Gun or put your photographs on the Web?" With this said, there is much implication that the root of this scandal was generated by someone close to Barba. Moreover, a spokesperson from Fox said that the network will not be releasing any official comments regarding this issue, whether this will affect Barbas fate on the show or not. And despite the angst brought about this issue, the subject matter have surprisingly translated into positive exposure both for Barba and most especially for American Idol with more than 30 million viewers a week.