Conspiracy theories on contestant hairpieces and unearthed, years-old DUI arrests aside, American Idol has broken its first big scandal of the season—and the Fox juggernaut's producers barely batted a collective eye.
Just as this time last year saw the uncovering, literally, of racy photos of Idol contestant Antonella Barba, this time around, the reality show's requisite scantily clad photo flap came courtesy of male contestant David Hernandez, who was outed by a former boss Monday as an erstwhile exotic dancer.
But just as the Idol brain trust left Barba's fate up to the voters last year, Hernandez will remain in the mix. He's scheduled to croon '80s tunes tonight with the rest of the top-eight guys.
"We've had strippers on the show before," Idol executive producer Ken Warwick told TV Guide's Website. "We're never judgmental about people who do things like that. If it were some sort of heavy porn, then maybe we'd have to take action. But certainly not on this.”
The buzz started when photos of Hernandez in various states of shirtlessness—some taken while he worked as a bartender at a gay nightclub known as Burn—popped up on the Idol-undermining website VoteForTheWorst.com last month, quickly drawing speculation that Hernandez's past was less than Sandra Dee-like in its purity.
And then on Monday, a former boss confirmed that the singer, who sailed through voting last week thanks to a raved-about rendition of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," once worked as a male stripper at a Phoenix nightclub.
Gordy Bryan, manager of the innuendo-laden Dick's Cabaret, told the Associated Press that Hernandez stripped down fully nude during his performances and also gave lap dances to the club's "mostly male" patrons.
"He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here," Gordy said, adding that Hernandez worked at the club for roughly three years, shimmying off the dance floor for good Sept. 30 in anticipation of his TV debut.
Hernandez first auditioned for Randy, Simon and Paula in San Diego exactly two months prior, on July 30 of last year.
It's unclear whether Hernandez had been forthcoming with producers from the get-go, though history has proven they tend to be more liberal in their forgiveness of contestants' scandalous pasts should they come clean early on.
"The truth is we're never judgmental about what people do to earn a living," Warwick said. "They've gotta put food in people's mouths."
As it is, no official reference, either on air or online, has been made to Hernandez's disrobing past by the show, though certainly not for lack of opportunity.
In a mini Q&A featured on the official American Idol website, Hernandez is asked what people might be surprised to learn about him. His response included bon mots about being raised by a single mom and living out of his car, but featured bupkes on how he allegedly spent the past three years in the workforce.
While Hernandez's forced disclosure hasn't signaled his end in the competition, back in 2003, favored contestant Frenchie Davis was dismissed from the show after it was discovered she once appeared on an adult website.
Last year's scandal-ridden contestant, Barba, did continue on in the competition—though thanks to discerning viewer voters, not for too long—after her racy photo past made headlines.
"If there's a stretch of the public that thinks, 'Oh, dear, he was a male stripper, I'm not gonna vote for him,' then that's the luck of the draw," Warwick said. "If the public doesn't like him, then they'll get rid of him."
Meanwhile, Hernandez can at least take some comfort in the fact that he isn't this season's first memory-card casualty. Last week, CelebTV.com published slightly risqué photos of 20-year-old female contestant Ramiele Malubay groping a female coworker's breast. In the photos, which allegedly came from her MySpace page, she's featured as both groper and gropee. However, the Filipino spitfire, and everyone else in the photos, is fully clothed.
Rumors also abound that nude photos of contestant Amanda Overmyer are being shopped around to the tabloids, though no evidence that any such photos exist has yet surfaced. For her part, the finalist, whose beyond voluminous skunk-striped hair has drawn criticism from Cowell, also made headlines last week when the National Enquirer discovered she had pleaded guilty to DUI back in October 2006.
Meanwhile, ousted contestant Robbie Carrico, the boybander turned, per Cowell, disingenuous rocker, dealt with his own hair-raising miniscandal last month, when he denied rampant speculation that his long locks were a wig.
(Originally published Mar. 4, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. PT)