Idol's David Hernandez in Trouble

The latest scandal to rock American Idol involves contestant David Hernandez. Hernandez is currently in the competition vying for one of the coveted top 12 spots. Last week he impressed the judges with his rendition of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone."

Associated Press is reporting that Hernandez at one time worked as a nude dancer at Dick's Cabaret in Phoenix, which happens to be a male strip club. All of this was related to them by Gordy Bryan, the manager of the club...who also reported that Hernandez gave lap dances to male clientale. Bryan also told AP that Hernandez worked steadily at the club for 3 years and as recently as September 2007.

According to Gil Kaufman of MTV.com, the buzz surrounding Hernandez started last week on VotefortheWorst.com where images of a scantily clad Hernandez appeared showing him working at a gay club called Burn. As soon as the images posted on the web, VotefortheWorst founder Dave Della Terza said they started receiving reports saying that Hernandez was a stipper in Phoenix.

So far, there has been no response from American Idol or Hernandez in regard to the rumors. This scandal is only one of several to have rocked Amercian Idol over the past few years. During the second season of Idol, contestant Frenchie Davis was booted from the show as a result of racy pictures which surfaced online where she had posed for an adult web site.

Contestant Antonella Barber also became the subject of controversy in 2007 when racy pictures of her surfaced. She was not booted from the show, however...and this resulted in a different kind of controversy...with accusations of racism and weight discrimination.

Perhaps the biggest controversy to rock the Idol stage was regarding season 2 contestant Corey Clark, who alleged that he and Paula Abdul had an affair...claiming that this affair was instrumental in his longevity on the show. His claims were met with speculation, but created a huge media buzz in that he seemed to know certain things just any contestant was not privy to. Clark was eventually voted off the show, but it had nothing to do with his claims of an affair...which only came later. There was speculation that Clark was only trying to make a name for himself by creating the buzz in order to promote himself.

It will be interesting to see how American Idol reacts to this latest scandal. They do not have a consistent record of dealing with such issues. While some people believe that a contestant's past should have nothing to do with whether or not they stay on the show, others believe that they should be role models and that any past indiscretions should definitely help determine their fate on the popular show.

In my opinion, it should all come down to the interview process each contestant goes through in applying to be on American Idol. Anything that needs to be disclosed regarding their past should be disclosed during the interview. This will give the producers a heads-up and they can make the decision at that time to either allow the contestant to continue or not. However, if a contestant lies during the interview process or does not disclose something and it comes to light at a later time, then I believe American Idol should boot the contestant for the simple fact that he was not honest during the interview.

Any contestant who actually believes that a shady past will not follow him as he becomes a household name is being very naïve. The truth will come out...as we are seeing in the case of David Hernandez. This will most likely either make or break his Idol career. In my opinion, this kind of publicity is going to be much more harmful than beneficial.