It's 'Antonella Night' on American Idol

Tonight is Antonella Night on American Idol. The poor little vixen looked terrified (and uncomfortable, too) in the brief audience shots during Sanjaya Night-- but one thing's certain-- she will not be disqualified by the producers. Word came last night, believe it or not, from the Idol judges and host-- at a party at the The Playboy Mansion!

Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest were partying with Hef last night.

And they all, craftily, took Ms. Barba's side in the naughty photo scandal.

Sez Simon: "These people haven't done anything illegal; that's their private life. (The photos should) not affect her standing on the show, and if the public wants to keep her in, they'll keep her in."

Randy: "Nobody's clean in the entertainment business."

Ryan: "It's just tacky, disgusting. You've got a girl who's trying to make it on a show where she needs a vote, and someone's trying to tear that away from her. (I'd) absolutely let (Antonella ) stay on. If American Idol is a true representation of American youth, we're going to find imperfections. And it's OK to be imperfect."

Producer Nigel Lythgoe confirms that it will be up to America (and a few phone calls from India) to decide if Antonella has violated some unwritten moral code and deserves to be eliminated.

And it turns out that, as we predicted, those sex-act photos (that came through that source that first presented the tamer snaps), have actually helped Antonella...

With general agreement that Antonella's not the gal in the hardcore pix (NSFW!) (thanks to additional photos (NSFW!) that confused the issue enough for everyone to give the poor kid the benefit of the doubt), she's got the sympathy vote.

Now, showing off her butt crack, posing on the toilet, grappling topless in group shots, grinding up against other coeds, peeling off her thong and groping herself soaking wet on a national monument-- even imitating Jessica Simpson-- seem pretty wholesome.

Even the lady at the New York Times rewrites history and cleans up the mess today by referring to "an amateurish Internet scandal involving fake dirty pictures." Then again, she calls Paula Abdul a "mom I'd like to sleep with"-- how's that for cleaning up a phrase?

So tonight, all eyes are on Antonella. Will she play the minx ala McPhee? Or will she cry? And the bigger question: Could she actually get to the finals? Does she have a chance to actually win? A few gambling sites are laying out the odds.

Sadly, the oddsmakers don't think she has a chance. Her current odds to win at 5Dimes.com are "+4000." That means a $100 bet on Antonella to win would result in a $4,000 payout. BetUS.com oddsmakers believe Antonella may end up posing for Hef or one of his competitors: "She will appear nude in Playboy +600*"... "She will appear nude in Penthouse +800*".

(See the latest NSFW Antonella pix here).

And hey, what's Ryan Seacrest doing at the Playboy Mansion?

Posh Spice as America's new Queen of Comedy?

She's a haughty stick-insect fashion plate who acts like she's something special when she's just a former Spice Girl. He's a guy who has a squeaky voice, plays a sport no one in America cares about, wears dresses and cheats on his wife publicly. They're treated like royalty in Europe, where royalty means something. Here in the States, they're considered plastic surgery oddities hiding behind oversized sunglasses on the fringes of Scientology. But hey, we'd watch their reality show!

The idea of a reality series starring David and Victoria Beckham has been batted around since it was announced the couple would be coming to America so David could join the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team this summer.

And today, NBC is reportedly thisclose to signing Victoria, aka Skinny Spice, to star in a reality series revolving around the move--and her fashion business, DVBStyle.

What's most surprising is that the show will also be centered on Victoria's wild-and-crazy sense of humour.

Apparently the pouting poser is some kind of laff riot!

Vicki's manager, Simon Fuller, the prefab pop guru who created the Spice Girls and American Idol, says, "The Americans are falling over to sign Victoria to TV. They have taken a shine to her hilarious humour."

London's Daily Mail says the deal with the British Tina Fey is worth $19.6 million. The New Zealand Herald says it's worth $28 million. We at Tabloid Baby will go on a limb and say it's worth $100 million!

Fuller's company would produce the series, which could be on the air this summer. They're hoping the reality show will make the couple huge stars and products in America. Personally, we're just looking forward to the Spice Girls reunion. Because we really, really dig the Spice Girls. No fooling.

(...and check out President Bush's finger in the top photo. What's up with that?)

Exclusive! The View's singing sensation, Von Smith

Here’s a wild story. Last summer, we were in Kansas City shooting Basketball Man, when we stopped in to sample the local culture at the Isle of Capri casino on the river. Tucked away, performing upstairs in a tiny lounge, was a young man fronting a trio of older musicians. The kid sang rhythm & blues and jazz standards. He had a very youthful, upper-register sound. He was a good singer, we thought. Really good. Too good for the room. We snapped a few pictures in case he wound up on American Idol, which is where it sounded like he belonged.

He didn’t show up on Idol, and after he didn't we deleted some of the photos! But this morning, he showed up on The View. It turns out he’s become a YouTube sensation because of a clip showing him singing a girl’s song: “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”-- the one from Dreamgirls that got Jennifer Hudson her Oscar®.

Von Lee Smith, age 20, made quite an impression in his first national TV appearance this morning. The audience went nuts and judging by the way Rosie O'Donnell was all over him, he seems to be on his way to stardom.

But we knew him when, as these photos attest…

All photos © TB.com

Our Man Elli catches Ellen stealing at the Oscars®

Tabloid Baby's correspondent in Jerusalem, Our Man Elli in Israel, is a TV star as a top correspondent for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. But he's also star of Frozen Pictures' documentary project, Sex & Baseball, which gives him some authority when it comes to the movies. Put his investigative skills to to work on the Oscars, and he finds a new reason to dislike Ellen DeGeneres' performance as host:

We know that the host for the Oscars® has to really be on top of his or her game-- after all, this IS the biggest entertainment night of the year, they've just been given the plum assignment, and they better do an outstanding job or else their failure will be remembered longer than a success ever would.

Ellen DeGegeneres herself understood the importance of the evening, having said before the show®: "I don't take this for granted for a second. This is the biggest event, you know, probably to date that I've done."

Well, if it's the biggest thing you've ever done, shouldn’t you make it a point to work hard and do it right?

If you're a great comedian, like a Billy Crystal, you write good lines and deliver them. If you're Ellen DeGeneres, you're not even smart enough to hire good gagwriters and you wind up blowing the opportunity as the second woman to ever serve as solo emcee.

When DeGeneres comes out there to strut her stuff, what's the brilliant line she delivers that gets quoted more than any other?

"What a wonderful night, such diversity in the room, in a year when there's been so many negative things said about people's race, religion and sexual orientation…"

Now first of all, what made 2006 different from any other year? Has there ever NOT been a year where so many negative things have been said about people's race, religion and sexual orientation? Not important, really, because it's just a set up for the brilliant pithy joke that follows:

"...And I want to put this out there: If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars®."

Hey, fun-ny! Clever. And most important: original-- biting social commentary that really tells everyone where Hollywood is at, and let's all wrap our arms around it and celebrate.

Except for one thing: it is, in fact, a 23-year-old joke used in Mel Brooks’ movie, To Be or Not to Be:

Frederick Bronski: "If it wasn't for Jews, fags, and gypsies, there would be no theater."

Bring back Whoopi Goldberg!

Antonella sex pix: Could it be a lookalike?!

There's a new twist in the Antonella Barba American Idol sex photo scandal. The latest "CSI" analysis of sex-act photos that have made international headlines and caused consternation amid the highest levels of the Idol machine-- reveals that they may feature an Antonella lookalike!

VotefortheWorst.com, a website that urges people to vote for the least-talented Idol contestants, is now linking to an amateur porn site that includes additional shots from the same sex session. The site indicates the woman in the close-up sex act photos is seen above, at right. (Antonella is at left). Then again, this may be manipulation as well (remember, VotefortheWorst wants to keep weak singers like Antonella in the running).

But if it does turn to be a different woman in the X-rated shots, it confirms our earlier suspicion that a) the deliberate leaking of these photos is a publicity ploy... and/or b) someone has it out for Antonella. The 20-year-old would surely also receive a lot of sympathy--and perhaps forgiveness-- for the other embarrassing, yet tame-by-comparison pictures she did pose for (she'd still have to apologize for posing on a national monument).

No comment from Idol... or Antonella's family, so far.

DUELING ANTONELLA ANALYSES:

Here's the link to the Vote For the Worst site.

The shots of the Antonella lookalike are here (NSFW).

The latest shots of Antonella are here (NSFW!).

(UPDATE: Antonella's "best friend" and fellow Idol auditioner Amanda Coluccio confirms it's Antonella in the tamer photos-- but not the hardcore pix: "The really bad ones aren't her. I've studied them. It's not her nose. She's never had (acrylic nail) tips in her life. She's the least slutty person I know." Read all about it here.)

Sex Idol Antonella: Now there's a video!

The Antonella Barba sex photo scandal was overshadowed for a few hours by the Oscars® hoopla, but we kept you up-to-date over the weekend as the story jumped to the "mainstream" international news media (wouldn't you know, all it took was a little oral sex). And now that we're into a new work week, new photos of the American Idol contestant continue to be doled out by whatever forces are behind the move to turn the would-be singing star into the next Porn Idol. (Catch up with the coverage here.)

And now... there's a video!! Click here to see it (NSFW).

We're waiting for the other shoe to drop from Idol producers. On Friday, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said he hadn't seem the most explicit (NSFW) sex photos, but expressed sympathy for Antonella, on the asssumption that she did not expect her private photos to be made public (though some had apparently been posted on her own web pages).We expect that to change. We'll keep you updated. See the latest photo collection here and here. NSFW!

Meanwhile, "American Idol CSI" contests the validity of the oral sex photos:

1,000,000

Tabloidbaby.com passed more than a million page views this morning. It's about time! We've got to thank Antonella Barba, Heather Mills, Olivia Newton-John, Our Man Elli in Israel and that bizarre Tabloidrabies "tribute" site, among others, for putting us over the top. And you, of course. Bookmark us, subscribe, and tell your friends, read us at Tvgasm and Anorak, buy the book, tell your friends and stay tuned for the Tabloid Baby TV show.

Antonella Barba sex pix get the CSI treatment

It's a case of good news-bad news for embattled, exhibitionist American Idol contestant Antonella Barba. As we went into the weekend, her name was tops on many web search engines-- even besting Britney Spears, who made her own share of headlines this past week. The bad news? Anonymous cyberspace detectives have been hard at work analyzing those "sex act" photos that hit the web yesterday-- in an effort to prove that it is indeed a less-busty (see breast enhancement evidence here) Antonella depicted in what could be the Idol-ending poses.

Somebody really hates this poor girl. We here at Tabloid Baby were sent links to high-resolution, uncensored copies of the sex shots:

"Bookmark these links and download the pix ASAP before they get taken offline or this comment gets deleted. Then spread 'em further around the Web! Please reproduce them without blurring or an overlaid logo!"

Why?

Maybe it's the same person who sent the orginal oral sex shots to IDon'tLikeYouInThatWay.com, which blurred and branded them. Today, that site ran an anonymous promise that real Antonella product is in the pipeline:

"Hey, don't mention my name but my boyfriend goes to catholic university with antonella barba and is on the lax team with her ex boyfriend ( who she dumped right when she got to hollywood) and when i saw these pics i called him and asked him if they were real and he said they def were... he saw them in person before and he also saw a naked calender that she made for him as a birthday present... which he said is getting leaked on the internet soon."

We're sure the Idol producers are digging the controversy--especially after the show got beaten by Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night. But will they allow the show to lose its "family" appeal? Or its "American" appeal? There may be few things more American than soft-core porn, but there's another thread of anger out there-- veterans, angry she "desecrated" the National World War II Memorial in the DC mall by posing for pictures (here, NSFW) in the fountain. (Hey, WWII vets invented the pin-up. They should consider it an honor).

Stay tuned. This story's on a fast-moving cycle that's bound to come to an end soon. And it's bigger than Antonella Barba. A few weeks ago she was an anonymous college girl growing up in an age of cell phone videos, MySpace, Maxim, The Real World, Sex & The City and Fox Television. Now she's paying for the culture we all support. So does she deserve a break?

Hey, don't ask us! We're tabloid! See the latest Antonella Barba pictures here. Once again, they're NSFW.

"Yes, Oscar®, you may quote Cloud 9!"

Last year at this time, connections to the newly-released Frozen Pictures motion picture comedy Cloud 9 proved to be startlingly influential when it came to Academy Awards® nominees and winners. The six degrees of Kevin Bacon definitely made way for the two-degrees-or-less connections to Cloud 9. This year, as we approach Sunday's 79th Academy Awards®, insiders have hoped to forget The Number 23-- and look Cloud 9 to for more winning links.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the energy or time to pick through the nominees ties this season, so we’ll be probably check in after Martin Scorsese, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, Jackie Earle Haley, Jennifer Hudson and Babel pick up the major awards®—how’s that for a little controversy? But it's clear the beach volleyball stripper comedy, written and produced by Burt Kearns & Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures along with Academy Award® winner (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy, and starring Burt Reynolds, DL Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart and Gary Busey is becoming more influential than ever as it now plays on pay cable systems around the world.

And in tribute to the Oscar®’s ad campaign, May We Quote You?, which centers on memorable movie quotes, we give you a few of great lines from the Cloud 9 script. Thanks to Brett Hudson, Burt Kearns and their partner and old pal, Academy Award winner® (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy, the team that wrote this keeper and sports perennial:

"I gotta re-invent myself... do something big--
something that says, ‘Billy Cole’s back!’"
-- BURT REYNOLDS as BILLY COLE

"In this town, you're Mexican, you’re just
an ordinary gardener-- you're Asian, you’re
a landscape designer."
--PAUL RODRIGUEZ as WONG

"You talking about us hooking on boats?"
--KENYA MOORE as CHAMPAGNE

"I’m supposed to say stuff like,
'When the going gets tough, the
tough get going...' But I’m not
gonna say that. That’s shit.
So forget it! Forget the other
team. Play to the crowd. Pretend it’s the biggest strip
club in Vegas!"
--BURT REYNOLDS
as BILLY COLE

"I don’t know ‘bout you, but I’d rather
be known as a big weiner than a big whiner!"
--D.L. HUGHLEY as TENSPOT

"Let’s kick some rich white
hire-my-cousins-for-minimum-wage
westside ass!"
--PATRICIA de LEON as CORAZON

"It’s Billy Cole’s way... or the highway."
--BURT REYNOLDS as BILLY COLE

"I don’t dislike you Billy...
you’re just not a heavy lifter."
--ANGIE EVERHART
as JULIE

"They're not hookers. They're strippers!"
--BURT REYNOLDS
as BILLY COLE

Good luck to all the Oscar® nominees! Especially to The Departed... whose costar Martin Sheen narrated the Frozen Pictures documentary series, All The Presidents' Movie... which was produced by Cloud 9's writer-producers, Brett Hudson & Burt Kearns... and to Letters from Iwo Jima director Clint Eastwood, whose Million Dollar Baby, as we'd mentioned, was produced by Albert S. Ruddy-- ah, there we go again...

American Idol's Antonella: Now, the sex photos

Oh well. We can't say we're surprised, but it looks like the scandal over American Idol contestant Antonella Barba's photographic past has come to a head even quicker than we'd expected. The website I Don't Like You In That Way has come up with some photos that allegedly show the exhibitionistic Antonella in an act of sexual intimacy. We don't have independent confirmation, but the site has been on top of the photo scandal, and matches the sex shot at left with another Antonella pic for eyebrow, eye and nose comparisons. We won't show you her mouth.

Should the latest pictures (NSFW!) indeed depict the 20-year-old from New Jersey, they'll probably guarantee that she'll soon be leaving the Idol stage for a lucrative new career. For now, Idol E.P. Nigel Lithgoe says he hasn't seen the latest snaps. ''We have really good background checks on everybody, and we deal with that every season,'' he adds. ''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?''

The Idon'tlikeyouinthatway group and all the other Antonella evidence-- including teeth comparisons-- are here. Again, NSFW!!

Another day, another batch of Antonella pix

Antonella Barba might be the shy, trembling waif on American Idol, but there's definitely a crack in the facade. The New Jersey girl from Catholic University sure shows a different side in the creepingly more-explicit photos that are being doled out on the Internet every morning (she's apparently in the fountain in the DC War Memorial!). With many folks saying her survival through last night's elimination was helped by the publicity, it's only a matter of time before Idol producers make a move before they have another Frenchie scandal on their hands.

And now there's an entire website dedicated to the Antonella collection. The whole, updated batch remains here. And... yawn... it's NSFW.

Bathroom Humour: The Idol joke's on Antonella

Someone at American Idol definitely has a twisted sense of humour. Top 24 semifinalist Antonella Barba created a mini-scandal this week, as a photo showing her sitting half-naked on a toilet spread through the Internet. So what happened last night as the top women got to perform?

Antonella was the only one who started her song sitting down!

That's another reason they're Number One (or Number Two). After Antonella's performance last night, it looks like we don't have to worry much about the photo getting her kicked off the show-- her singing will take care of that.

Click here for the latest collection of Antonella scandal pix...

Reneé DiGiulio, Basketball Woman, dies too soon

Reneé DiGiulio, president of the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, wife of Ian Naismith, a tireless advocate for children and a prime mover in the development of Frozen Pictures' nonfiction film, Basketball Man, died today at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago after a long and valiant battle with cancer. She was 50. And she was our friend.

More scandal pix for American Idol's Antonella

The hits just keep on coming for American Idol hopeful Antonella Barba, as the Cindy Crawford of the Top 24 is turning into the Storm Large. Yesterday, photos of the 20-year-old sitting on the loo and discreetly topless showed up on the Internet. Today there are more-- and they don't come from from some nasty tabloid but thanks to her local newspaper!

The Phillyburbs newschain website has printed a portfolio of topless, boozing, authority-flaunting and girl-grinding pix (someone suggested they look like MySpace grabs).

That's a hazard of MySpace. And one thing we can be pretty sure of... there will be more to come.

We'll see if Antonella's pipes hold up on tonight's show. And if the producers don't find her image to be too tarnished for an Idol. A toilet bowl's one thing, but giving the finger? That's Rock Star Supernova territory.

Anyway, if Antonella doesn't make it as the American Idol, she can always go for Miss USA. She'd be a shoo-in.



(See the whole batch here. NSFW!)

Inside Edition vs TMZ battle looms

Imagine if there was a real tabloid television show on the air right now. In the meantime, Anna Nicole Smith may have died too soon to save Geraldo, but her rapidly-decomposing corpse has been doing wonders for the series that are out there. The latest to get the good news? Inside Edition, the pseudo tabloid and A Current Affair knockoff that went on the air in 1989, and somehow, through a below-the-radar history of inoffensiveness and blandness that's moved from David Frost to Bill O'Reilly to Deborah Norville, has gotten a commitment to last well past its 20th year, into the 2011-2012 season. And today, Norville (being a good sport for her show, above) got a big vote of confidence with a big contract extension.

"We have a history with our viewers," she said today. "'Inside Edition' has been part of the television viewer's world for a generation now and there is an incredible amount of trust that goes with that. Even with the current coverage of Anna, we try to tell it in a non-sensational way. We make a point of talking about the water-cooler stories of the day, but we work hard not to abuse stories that are disturbing to our viewers."

"Deborah's solid news background and willingness to get in the trenches are a huge part of this show's success," said Inside executive producer Charles Lachman. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have lead our news team."

You can read about Inside's history here. Meanwhile, TV scribe Marvin Kitman has finally come out with his long-awaited bio of former Inside anchor O'Reilly. Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns, credited by Kitman as "tabloid historian," thankyouverymuch, is the authority on the Inside start-up years in The Man Who Would Not Shut Up.

We've been busy. But we'll get to the Kitman book-- and a very important correction to its text-- soon.

Stay tuned.

Idol Rewipe: A distinguished musical tradition

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