That’s Not Her
A close friend of “American Idol” semifinalist Antonella Barba says that the aspiring singer is not the subject of some graphically sexual pictures purported to be of her that were posted on the Internet last week.
The pictures include one of four women posing topless at the beach, their hands covering their breasts, and others of a woman engaged in a sexual act. The postings were anonymous.
Barba’s best friend, Amanda Coluccio of Holmdel, N.J., with whom she auditioned and won a trip to Hollywood for the second round before being eliminated, told the Star-Ledger of Newark that the less graphic photos are of Barba, but denied she is pictured in the pornographic ones.
“The really bad ones aren’t her. I’ve studied them,” Coluccio said. “It’s not her nose. She’s never had (acrylic nail) tips (like the woman in the photo) in her life. She’s the least slutty person I know.”
Meanwhile, in the 20-year-old’s hometown of Point Pleasant,N.J., where signs abound wishing her good luck, friends and strangers alike are supporting Barba, saving their condemnation for whomever posted the pictures online.
The fallout has many young people here thinking twice about posing for photos they thought were just to be shared among friends. “It’s the way this town is: Everybody knows everything about their friends,” said Mark Dillon, 17. “At least half the people in this town have pictures of their friends on the toilet. It’s only because she’s on TV that they’re online.”
All Fox would say Monday on the subject is, “We don’t comment on the personal lives of our show participants.”
However, Fox said stuff in 2003, for instance, when it booted Frenchie Davis from the competition for taking work posing as a little girl on a porn Web site that catered to men who liked the idea of sex with little girls, even though she said she did it to earn college tuition money.
But in this case, it appears that if the snaps are in fact of Barba, she has committed no crime, and there is no evidence she was paid to tug at her soaking-wet white T-shirt and black thong while cavorting in what appears to be D.C.’s World War II Memorial at night.
Other pics show Barba, sunbathing topless, standing in a conga line, each girl covering the breasts of the girl in front of her, girls on toilets, girls doing bump-and-grind dancing, etc. As the Washington Post put it, “Think ‘Girls Gone Wild’ Lite.”
“Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe has been quoted saying he thinks it’s sad that friends put friends’ naughty snaps on the Web.
Even votefortheworst.com, a Web site that picks what it considers the worst “American Idol” contestants, said the Barba saga is sobering. Said Dave Della Terza, who runs the site: “With the advent of MySpace and Facebook, people put photos up on the Internet and have to realize that someone you don’t even know can grab these photos that you think are only going to be seen by your friends, and have them on every Web site in the world within 10 minutes.”
Della Terza’s site posted photos Monday he claims confirms the woman in the sex photo is not Barba. Close-ups of the right ear of the woman in the sex photo, and a photo known to be of Barba, show differently shaped ears.
Barba’s first performance was roundly panned by judges, yet she made it through to the second round, and is due to perform Wednesday.
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