Trenyce's Past Arrest Exposed

It's no wonder Lashundra Cobbins, aka Trenyce, changed her name for the purposes of American Idol. We all thought it was because that would be a more star-like name. But that might not have been the entire reason. Perhaps she thought the old name would fade away and the folks at The Smoking Gun website wouldn't find out about her past.

Yeah, right.

Reality show participants - especially those on Fox - should know by now that if they have anything bad in their past (or present), they might as well just tell the world about it, because otherwise The Smoking Gun is going to do it for them.

Trenyce, one of the final nine competitors on the second American Idol series, was arrested in October 1999 for felony theft in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Unlike most other cases The Smoking Gun digs up, there isn't too much more information than that. She went through a program that allowed her to basically be on supervision for a year and then, when she kept out of trouble, her record was expunged. So the site doesn't have their usual copies of arrest warrants and trial records and the like. They do, however, have mug shots from the Memphis Police Department, which you can view here. They are quite different from the smiling, well-dressed photos you will find of her now.

According to E-Online, American Idol producers released a statement (I wonder if they have these ready-made at this point) saying, "It was a minor matter that Trenyce was honest about from the beginning. After looking into it, we felt it warranted no concern regarding her participation in the show."

So in other words, if you do something illegal, it's okay. If you do something legal but which appears to be dirty, as Frenchie did, you're outta there. (Meanwhile on Survivor, women are getting rewarded for stripping!) Exactly what kind of message does that send? I'm not entirely sure. At least we do know from the case of one-time semi-finalist Jaered Andrews that allegedly killing somebody in a fight will get you booted off the show.

The real question now is whether this revelation will affect her attempt to win American Idol. Most reviewers have not picked her as likely to win - those honors generally go to Clay and Ruben - but many have indicated that she could easily make it to the top three or four. Will fewer people vote for her once they see these photos and hear the story? Or could it work in reverse? Will her hardcore fans redouble their efforts to keep her around if they think she is in danger because of this? Personally, I doubt it will affect her either way unless more details come out that shine an even worse light on things.

Probably the most amusing part of all of this is that on the official American Idol website, part of the "Interview Q&A" section has a question that asks, "Most embarrassing moment?" She replied that she didn't have one that she can think of. I'm sure she probably just forgot about this incident…

Or perhaps she was just waiting for The Smoking Gun to dig it up.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! For all of the RealityNewsOnline articles about this show, check out the American Idol page.

For more news about reality TV, be sure to check SirLinksALot!