I’ve had a busy week, peeps.   I apologize,  I’m a little behind.   I’ve got a bunch of updates to post on the Season 6 contestants who have appeared in this week’s audition rounds.   I’ll probably spend the rest of the weekend posting all my info.   This post will probably be updated at least once or twice.

Found this handy resource at Rollingstone.com.   This blog  is tracking the MySpace pages of all contestants who have been featured on Idol so far.   Here’s your Minneapolis  auditioners and your Seattle  auditioners.   Very handy.   For instance, you’ve got  Steven Thoen, Nicholas Zitzmann  and Blake  Lewis  (methinks we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Blake, I hear he had a very good week)

Your 15 Minutes Have Begun

Kenneth Briggs  and  Jonathan Jayne (right) will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight.   Oh boy.   While Kenneth is rather upset  that Simon made fun of his looks (Simon said he looked like a “bush monkey”), Jonathan is thrilled with his new-found celebrity, and can’t understand the backlash to his appearance.   Well, the fact that he can’t understand it may be the point…

Meanwhile, Steven à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Redà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ Ãƒâ€š  Thoen and his Mom are also   angry  over Steven’s portrayal:

Steven Thoen, 28, said the Fox television showà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s producers were disrespectful and unfair to him. His mother, June Lorimor of Superior, said that the show took advantage of Thoenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s mild mental retardation and made him a laughingstock.

Contestants with mental disabilities should be screened out of the process PERIOD, as far as I’m concerned.

First Idol Scandal of the Season

And, that didn’t take long, did it peeps?  TMZ.com has dug up the  arrest record  of Seattle auditioner  Thomas Daniels.   According to TMZ, in in 2004, Thomas  was convicted of DUI in Clackamas,  OR,   pled guilty and was sentenced to a one-year alcohol diversion program and a $680 fine. After the completing his DUI sentence, the incident was wiped from his record.

In December 2005,  Thomas was arrested again–for hit and run. He failed to appear in court for the arraignment and was subsequently rearrested.   Thomas says both incidents are the result of being “young and dumb”.   It’s not clear whether Thomas disclosed his arrest record to Idol producers.

If he didn’t disclose his record to the producers, and managed to advance to the Top 24 on Monday (it’s possible, Thomas is a very good singer) I would say his Idol career is now toast.

More Season 6 Contestants

Nicholas Zitzmann (the Utah software engineer whose performance of “Unchained Melody” never seemed to end) says  his “…biggest regret is I chose the wrong song…I had no idea going into this that the song was Simon’s favorite song (Ryan Seacrest told me right before I stepped into the room). If I had to do it over again, I would have probably performed a comedy number instead and tried to make the judges laugh.”   Nicholas, I think they were laughing at you anyway.

Self-professed “Crack Baby” Denise Jackson who auditioned in Minneapolis  is profiled here.   Denise says, “There’s a lot of controversy about what I said on ‘American Idol.’ Some people asked me, ‘Why would you say that?’…It’s the truth. I’m not ashamed of what I am. I’m a young lady.”   And check this out, according to the article:

Jackson, who goes to La Follette High School in Madison, has spent a chunk of her time with TV camera crews and answering phone calls about her success after being plucked from a pool of more than 18,000 who auditioned. The show aired Tuesday in front of 30 million viewers, and Jackson will return to Los Angeles on Feb. 14 for the semifinals.

Oh really?   Did this newspaper just reveal Denise Jackson’s Top 24 status?   Hmmm….

One more: Giantess (just kidding!) Anna Kearns’ fellow Wild Wings employees are interviewed here.   They had no idea Anna had done so well in the competition.   Anna had auditioned for Texoma’s Idol, television station KJTL Fox 18′s local competition, but didn’t win.   She decided to audition on her own anyway.