Here’s an item you won’t find posted at TMZ *snicker*.
An American Idol audience member tells the UK Daily Mail that she was banished to the back of the American Idol studio at a recent show taping, because she was too big. Meanwhile two of her skinny friends were seated up front.
19 year old Ashley Kaufman tells the tale:
‘There were two ladies and one said: “Oh, I don’t want shorts in front, ” about my friend, ‘ ‘Then she looked at me and said: “Oh no, you’re too big, too heavy to be in front!” ‘I was taken aback by it. I was hurt. My friends were completely taken back. I’m the heavier one in our group but I’m not even that heavy, ‘ she said.
To make matters worse Miss Kauffman and the two other girls were then seated in the back of the theatre rather than directly behind their other friends. ‘They had made their way to the second row but had been stopped by another member of Idol staff, this time male.
Miss Kauffman said he grabbed her ticket and said: ‘This makes sense why you’re not with the skinny girls. You’re in the last row.’ ‘It hurt to hear that from the first girl but it hurt even more coming from a guy, ‘ Miss Kauffman said.
At 150 lb and 5’2″ Ashley is not drastically overweight. Probably fat by California standards though. I think it’s pretty typical for TV shows to want to fill the first rows with pretty people. If the ushers were that blunt, they need to be retrained. A little tact goes a long way.
‘I was borderline tears, ‘ she added.
‘I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s still on my mind.’
She added that staff had seated two girls who were ‘super skinny and wearing little dresses’ in the front row where her and her friends would have been sitting.
