Vanessa Olivarez Gets Naked (and Other Vanessa News)

Of all the American Idol contestants, past and present, if you had to pick a list who would be likely to get naked soon after getting the boot, Vanessa Olivarez probably would not have been on that list. While she certainly seemed comfortable with her own body, and even worse clothing that sometimes tended to show that body off (and provoking Simon’s famous comment about losing a little weight), the fact is that most people don’t see her as Playboy centerfold material.

But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) saw things differently. Entertainment Tonight has reported that Vanessa took it all off for one in a series of their fairly well-known anti-fur ad campaigns about being comfortable in your own skin and letting animals keep theirs.

Vanessa told ET that she was thrilled to be in the campaign, though she doesn’t have the body that some previous participants had, such as Pamela Anderson or Kim Basinger. She said, “hopefully, people won’t be offended” and added, “My butt is bigger, but it is cool.” Indeed, without any clothes on I would imagine that it would catch a draft. Wait. Maybe that wasn’t what she meant.

Vanessa had never done a nude photo shoot before, but she proclaimed, “Nudity is fun” after doing this one.

While the press release on the PETA website notes that Simon’s comments about losing weight “sparked a national uproar,” Vanessa has repeatedly stated that she understood and had indeed tried to drop some pounds (no, taking off her clothes does not count). She told ET, "I knew I needed to lose a tiny bit of weight, just a tad, but I wasn't offended. It is the business and that is the way the business goes. If I was going to spend $3 million on somebody, I would definitely want them to lose weight as well." (Of course, that same press release also said this happened “two weeks ago,” which would have been after Vanessa was eliminated and not even close to when the semi-final round in which he said that actually took place.)

While Vanessa has been working on this, there is other American Idol-related news involving her.

In the past couple days, both Yahoo and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have reported that Vanessa – along with other past contestants – will soon begin a “mall tour” with Coca Cola, called “Behind the Scenes with American Idol.” Details are not yet clear and it didn’t help that the information from Yahoo was contained in the same article that had confused details about the AI charity CD. But the AJC says the stops will be in Simon-owned malls (no, not Simon Cowell, Simon the company).

There are also some extremely unverified rumors relating to Vanessa. Some people have been posting on Vanessa-related websites (and elsewhere) that she has been told in no uncertain terms that she will not be on the finalists’ album this season. (You can actually pre-order the CD now on Amazon, but it doesn’t give specifics as to who is on it yet.) It is not clear why she would not be on the CD, especially if she is going to be touring for AI in those malls.

At least some people have come up with a conspiracy theory to explain this already. They have claimed that Vanessa’s family members were the ones who leaked information on Trenyce and Corey to The Smoking Gun website, and that AI producers found out and wanted to punish her. Again, it’s not clear why, if this were the case, she would still be going on the mall tour.

For my part, I will believe both of these latter rumors when somebody who actually knows something (as opposed to passing along friend-of-a-friend tales) stands up to say so, or there is other good evidence of the sort.

Meanwhile, though, we can definitely look forward to seeing, um, more of Vanessa soon.

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

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