Joanna Pacitti is OUT Felicia Barton is IN – Pacitti Ruled Ineligible to Compete

By On 02/12/2009 · 85 Comments · In Uncategorized

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3rd Update:Â   From the Los Angeles Times:

A source close to the show now tells us that Pacitti was disqualified to “avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

In the past week, tabloids had been reporting on a private relationship between Pacitti and executives of 19 Management – one of the companies which oversees “Idol.”

Her previous ties to 19M are probably why she was disqualified..

2nd Update:

Joanna Pacitti, the American Idol season 8 hopeful who was shown advancing to the top 36 on Wednesday night’s telecast, has been booted from the competition and replaced by   26-year-old Felicia Barton. “It has been determined that Joanna Pacitti is ineligible to continue in the competition,” stated a Fox press release sent early Thursday morning announcing the show’s full roster of semifinalists.

HOLY CRAP! Could it be Joanna’s ties to 19Management executives Michelle Young and Roger Widynowski are to blame?

UPDATE:Â   Felicia is also listed instead of Joanna on the American Idol website, HERE.

Developing: Michael Slezak just gave me the heads up on this breaking story from EW:

Joanna Pacitti, the American Idol season 8 hopeful who’s been dogged by rumors of a close relationship with a pair of 19 Entertainment executives as well as a previous deal with A&M records, was not listed as one of the show’s 36 semifinalists in a press release sent by the Fox publicity department earlier tonight. This, despite the fact that tonight’s Idol telecast showed Pacitti advancing to the viewer-controlled voting portion of the competition. Stranger still, the name of Felicia Barton, who was shown getting eliminated by the judges during Wednesday night’s final Hollywood Week telecast, was included in Fox’s Top 36 announcement.

 
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  • http://www.myspace.com/swood1104 Sarah

    After honking about this more, I agree that they probably decided to drop her after the news of her 19M connections broke. However, how could they say anything before last night without spoiling that part of an upcoming show? If it truly was the case that they recently decided to drop her seeing that this link had been discovered, then the top 36 chair so was probably fnoshed of not close to it and why try to edit Joanna out? They wouldn’t have any footage to show of Felicia getting in so why not just leave it as is and then, as MJ said, put out the press release for max pr exposure? The timing makes complete sense to me.

    Of course, it could have been planned from the beginning and I’m just a fool. I wouldn’t count that out. :)

  • http://www.myspace.com/swood1104 Sarah

    Ugh. *Thinking, not honking LOL. Sorry for the double post. I can’t edit when I’m posting from my phone.

  • Kirsten

    If it truly was the case that they recently decided to drop her seeing that this link had been discovered, then the top 36 chair so was probably fnoshed of not close to it and why try to edit Joanna out? They wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have any footage to show of Felicia getting in so why not just leave it as is and then, as MJ said, put out the press release for max pr exposure?

    Didn’t they do something hinky with Sanjaya during the chairs episode? I may be totally remembering this wrong, but I seem to recall that Sanjaya was not one of the original Final 24 for Season 6. He had been cut, but was re-instated by the time the Chairs episode aired because I think one of the other contestants had gotten into trouble with the law. Yet, you couldn’t tell any of that from the chairs episode that aired (it only leaked out later).

    In any event, Idol has featured duets with dead people and younger versions of people, I’m sure they could have faked something if they wanted. Shown a quick clip of Felicia looking happy and you are there. Crop the crap out of it and photoshop it a bit and nobody will know that it was from the auditions. They film those stupid Ford commercials on Sunday and have them ready to air on Wednesday (and a few of them have had some editing done to them), so faking a happy Felicia shouldn’t be a problem for them at all.

    I still cannot believe that these dudes didn’t think that VFTW (or somebody) wouldn’t have found out about this 19M connection sooner or later (and having this exposed later would have actually been worse). 19 probably leaked the story themselves.

  • itsalleternal

    It looks like we were finally able to get the herbicide just in time…

  • schmanda

    Whoa! I just heard about this on the radio. But I’m torn: this is half “OMG Christmas comes early!”, half “Who am I gonna bitch about now?”

    Don’t think the uncloaking of the JoPlanta’s ficus-ness didn’t have anything to do with this. IOW, don’t go flyin’ in any small planes any time soon, MJ.

  • http://myspace.com/susanatfox sumidol

    Sarah – funny – were you honking at someone just then?

  • KrazeeK120

    I was starting to wonder what you meant Sarah…LOL.

    Anyways. I am VERY excited that Felicia is in and I, for one, will be voting my little fingers off for her.

  • http://www.myspace.com/swood1104 Sarah

    LOL sumidol. Nope just typing on my phone and with the way it does auto-correct if I mess up typing, I guess I mistyped “thinking” and my auto-correct changed it to “honking.” LOL.

  • cookcricket

    “I just hope they do a piece on Felicia to introduce her to the viewers because she has had virtually no air time.”

    ____________________________________________________________

    I don’t think this is going to hurt Felicia too much. Remember we had heard nary a word on Jason before the semi-finals last year and look how far he went. Perhaps this publicity will make people excited about hearing her too.

  • Easy

    I think she got a raw deal.

    Let the people decide if she belongs there or not.

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