American Idol's "Project Greenlight Moment"

She is, in my opinion, one of the most polished performers currently gracing the American Idol stage.And there's a good reason for that. It's because contestant Carly Smithson (a.k.a. Carly Hennesey) actually is a polished seasoned professional performer. Yep, the dew in her dewy newcomer eyes is a bit on the fake side in that she's already released a CD BEFORE becoming an AI contestant and MCA Records has already poured millions into building her professional career. Before..she..ever..tried..out..for..Idol.

You see, both the CD and the career went nowhere. Carly was dumped by the record company - not the story she's currently peddling about how the record company "imploded" out from under her. Well, that and her story about how her CD went nowhere because 9/11 happened. People weren't into buying music post-terrorism, according to Carly. 9/11 finished her career. For the moment.

You really have to admire this girl's grit and bare-knuckle determination to have a singing career. She certainly has the talent to back it up. It's just that America is being led to believe that American Idol is all about discovering new talent, new unprofessional talent, not recycled pros with already failed careers.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean, about pros participating in a contest for discovering new talent. Sure. Why not? But, be straight with the public, don't try to deceive us and even though I don't think Carly is trying to be deceptive, I do think the producers and promoters of American Idol should stop billing their contest as a process of discovering new talent.

All professional performers should be clearly labelled as such so the American public can phone in their votes accordingly, yes - they vote for the seasoned pro or no - I'm sticking with the new talent.

Don't you think American Idol should at least be honest with the alleged millions of its fans?

I understand the CD sales and careers of most post-show contestants have been somewhat disappointing so it might be tempting to send in a few ringers but then, you've changed the basic chemistry of the show and how the viewing audience will relate to it... once they know.

And, I think people have a right to know. That is all. As judge Randy Jackson says (it's one of his favorite cliches), "Just keepin' it real, dude."

You can read one version of the story here and another bitchier version of the story here.

Former contestants of Project Greenlight will understand the reference to that screenwriting and directing contest fronted by actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and producer Chris Moore.

In Project Greenlight, they actually had specific rules forbidding pros from participating in an amateur contest and then happily forgot all about their own rules once people had paid in their entrance fees.