Can We Stand Another American Idol Scandal

Honestly, the American Idol finals start in just a few hours, and we're already on our second scandal. The first revolved around Antonella Barba and her salacious photos, her seemingly bad 'tude, and questionable talent. She was put out of her misery, and some would say the audience's, last week. Great, time to get on it with what we're here for, right? Wrong.

Scandal number two. Mario Vazquez strangely quit American Idol in season four. Sure, people have quit before, but now when they were being touted as a potential winner, and not right after they had been chosen as one of the twelve finalists. He thrilled many in the semi-finals, including Simon Cowell, who said it looked Mario had been doing it for years, and that he didn't need any advice from them.

Strangely, after Mario made it to the final 12, with nearly everyone's blessings, he quit. Just ... quit. Nikko Smith, who had been cut for the final 12, came back to take Mario's place. Mario never gave any reason, except to say it was for personal family reasons. Many, many, many rumors existed about this. Some said he had received other offers, and quit to get going with his career because he was that good. Others that had suspected he was gay wondered if the rumors were getting too close to home, and he quit rather than subject himself to that any longer.

Within a few months after season four of American Idol ended, it was announced that Mario had signed with none other than Clive Davis, who signs the American Idol winners and runners-up. Occasionally he signs others in the final 12 as well. But why was he signing someone that had already quit on the show? Again, this raised up more issues and rumors, and fans began to question if maybe Davis had a secret agreement with Mario, and that's why he had quit.

The single, Gallery, didn't do very well on the charts, and Mario's self-titled album did even worse. He sold less albums that William Hung, who is more than a novelty act than anything else. Apparently he was in need of more advice from the American Idol judges. Mario took the opportunity while promoting his music to talk about his decision to leave American Idol, citing he wanted more creative control than he would be allowed as a possible winner of American Idol. He has also said he was afraid of being labeled as a final 12 American Idol contestant, and having it be too limiting. Because being known as someone who quit the number one show in America is better?

Now today we hear even more news about Mario Vazquez, raising doubts that he quit because of a need for creative control, or in order to no be labeled. The former account of the production company behind American Idol, Fremantle Media North American Inc., has come forward, suing Fremantle, Fox Entertainment Group Inc., American Idol Productions Inc. and Mario Vazquez for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Well, this certainly came up out of the blue.

The accountant, Magdaleno Olmos, claims Mario followed him into the bathroom, knocked on his stall, and made eye contact through the crack in the closed door. He goes on to say Mario rubbed his genitals over his pants, and when Olmos attempted to leave, he found Mario blocking him from leaving by masturbating in front of him. Olmos told his bosses, and was told nothing could be done, that no one was going to believe him, and that he might be fired. Olmos was fired that May after working at the company since late 2002.

I don't know what's going to come of this, as I don't know if it's something that can be proven. It's a simple matter of which one is more believable. Olmos is a total unknown, and the question becomes is he just a disgruntled employee? After all the hoopla with Antonella, is this guy just trying to cash in as well? What about Mario? Is this the reason reason he left the show? Was it in some type of a coverup over the incident and the truth behind his sexuality? Was his contract with Clive Davis some type of payoff to quit and keep the scandal quiet?

While it would answer some questions, such as just what it was that led to Mario oddly dropping out, it brings up many more. Yet, since finals have barely even started, I'm guessing this isn't our last scandal of season six.

For more on American Idol, Reality Shack and LauraBelle's Blog

For more information on American Idol, see SirLinksalot: American Idol