Beyond "American Idol"

Fri., Sep. 30, 2005 4:00 PM PDT by Sarah Hall

He may not have won Idol, but Constantine Maroulis is far from idle.

The Pray for the Soul of Betty rocker has signed on to star in an upcoming ABC sitcom to be produced by Kelsey Grammer's company, People magazine reports.

There's no word on what the sitcom will be about or what character Maroulis will portray, but the singer said he is confident about his future.

"My name is out there," he told People. "I'm not nervous about the window closing."

Maroulis, who finished sixth in the fourth season of American Idol, said he is also at work on a solo album.

The show is the "best thing that's ever happened to me," Maroulis said. "I'm not cursed with that stigma of being the American Idol."

While Maroulis discusses his bright future, another Idol has opened up about the dark secrets of her past.

In her new memoir, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, Fantasia Barrino, winner of the third season of the talent contest, reveals that she was raped as a ninth grader by a boy on whom she had a crush.

Barrino told ABC's 20/20 that after the sexual assault occurred, she went home and crawled into her bed.

"And my mom comes upstairs and she says, 'Something is wrong with you.' I wouldn't even talk. She says, 'Have you been touched?' I still said nothing," Barrino said, in an interview scheduled to air Friday. "I laid in that bed for two days. I wouldn't even go to school."

The singer also revealed that she can not read or write, but that she hid that fact during her Idol stint by listening to lyrics until she had them memorized.

"You're illiterate to just about everything. You don't want to misspell," Fantasia told 20/20 of her struggles. "So that, for me, kept me...in a box and I didn't, wouldn't come out."

Barrino said she is opening up about her past in order to show others that problems can be overcome.

"I want people to just see, all you got to do is have a little faith," she said. "Have a little faith. Don't give up."

The Idol winner said she is currently working with tutors to learn to read so that she will be able to understand legal documents such as record contracts, as well as read books to her 4-year-old daughter, Zion.

Barrino is currently gearing up for her North American tour with Kanye West and Common, which kicks off Oct. 11 in Miami.