Fantasia Biopic Hits Wrong Note?

Mon., Jul. 31, 2006 5:05 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

The minds behind American Idol want you to know that there was never a moment like this.

The much-hyped Fantasia Barrino biopic scheduled to air Aug. 19 on Lifetime is already coming under fire from Idol execs who say that a scene depicting a show producer trying to deter the single mother from staying in the competition is "a complete fabrication."

The opening scene in the movie The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale shows the High Point, North Carolina, native walking into her bouquet-filled dressing room after bringing down the house with "Chain of Fools" during one of the weekly performance shows. Waiting for her is a fictional Idol producer named Ed (there is no Ed in Idol's actual production credits) and a PR-type named Barbara.

The smarmy producer proceeds to ask Barrino whether she has heard the Internet chatter circulating about her high-school-dropout and single-mother status. (The Free Yourself songstress had her daughter, Zion Quari' Barrino, in 2001 when she was 17.) Then Barbara tells her that "they" have received quite a few calls and emails about her background.

Totally out of concern, of course, the Idol reps then tell the aspiring star that no one would blame her if she dropped out of the competition.

"See what you want to do," Barbara says. "The choice is up to you. You can quit. No shame."

Sure, the image makes for great melodrama, but executive producer Ken Warwick adamantly denied that such an episode could have taken place under his watch.

"It's absolutely and totally untrue," Warwick said in the New York Post. "I'm the executive producer, Nigel [Lythgoe] is the other executive producer and nobody--to my knowledge--would have said anything like that to her.

"Certainly, under no circumstances was she ever approached to be talked out of taking part in [the show]," he continued. "We knew she had a baby right from day one, and she was always strongly tipped to win the competition because she was so good. I can absolutely refute that nothing was done, or even remotely suggested to her that she shouldn't take part in the competition."

A Fox publicist declined further comment beyond confirming Warwick's remarks. There was no immediate comment from producers of the Lifetime movie.

Barrino, who had been singing in her church choir since she was five years old, triumphed during the third season of American Idol in 2004 after wowing the judges with her soulful performance of "Summertime" from the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess and then stealing home with her Idol-tailored single, "I Believe."

After the now-controversial opening scene, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale flashes back to the Idol champ's poverty-stricken childhood, the sexual abuse she suffered through as a teen, and her experiences as an unemployed, unwed mom.

The TV movie is based on Barrino's 2005 memoir of the same name, which also revealed that the Grammy-nominated singer had struggled with illiteracy all her life. The musically gifted Barrino couldn't read contracts, scripts or sheet music--she could only memorize the songs she was told to sing.

The 22-year-old entertainer told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour last week that, while reliving those parts of her life was traumatic, she felt confident that her story could be an inspiration to others.

"At the end, I began to cry and I said, 'I went through all those things, but I know why I share my life.' I'm thankful that I was able to do it."