Richard Rushfield - American Idol: The Untold Story

For three years Richard Rushfield covered American Idol for the Los Angeles Times , writing hundreds of columns and conducting thousands of interviews with cast and crew. He is currently an entertainment columnist for The Daily Beast , a Vanity Fair contributing editor, and author of its long-running Intelligence Report column.

S ometimes it takes a village to cover a television show, particularly when that show exists on the epic scale of American Idol . I stumbled onto the Idol beat four years ago, and since then my work has been just a piece of a larger puzzle, fitting together at every stage with the work of some of the most talented people Ive ever known.

First of all, I never would have gotten into this whole mess without the support and encouragement of two wonderful editors who knew I had a rendezvous with destiny under the Idol dome long before I accepted it myself. To Kate Aurthur and Maria Russo I owe it all.

In my three years covering this for the Los Angeles Times , I was part of a great team who in a host of ways contributed to our coverage and allowed us to take it beyond the daily news churn and rumor chasing. I will always be grateful to my comrades who at various moments joined our Idol team; in no particular order, a million thanks to Lora Victorio, Jevon Phillips, Patrick Day, Joseph Kapsch, Todd Martens, Denise Martin, Stephanie Lysaght, Leslie Wiggins, Rebecca Snavely, Martin Miller, Ann Powers, Maria Elena Fernandez, and Scott Collins. Supporting me from above and giving me time to pursue this crazy obsession, my thanks and apologies for the many missed meetings while off in Idol land to Meredith Artley, Rob Barrett, and Russ Stanton. And many thanks to two great editors of the Calendar section, Lennie Laguire and Betsy Sharkey, for letting me share this with the Los Angeles Times readers.

At the Daily Beast, where Ive been lucky enough to take my Idol journey to the next level, I am indebted to Gabe Dopplet, Edward Felsenthal, and Tina Brown.

One of the pleasures of life on the Idol beat has been working with some of the finest reporters in Hollywood. Through judging mishaps and grand finales, in an incredibly competitive reporting environment, the collegiality of this group has been a delight to work with, and one of the great pleasures of heading to the Idol dome each week was seeing each of them, competitors but never foes. Thank you to my fellow Idol dome survivors, and most especially Shawna Malcom, Adam Vary, Whitney Pastorek, Steve Gidlow, Antonia Blyth, Carita Rizzo, Lisa Ingrassia, Shirley Halpern. And a million thanks to my colleagues in the rest of the Idol press corps, who over the years have let me pick their brains, test my crazy theories, and swap tales, most especially to Fred Bronson, Brian Mansfield, and Lyndsey Parker, and to my fellow bloggers MJ Santilli, Rickey Yaneza, and Melinda Greene.

Within the Idol family, the PR team has, through the years, been nothing but a delight to work with and to know, and my eternal thanks go out to them for all the help theyve given and the trust theyve shown in allowing me to roam their empire. To Jill Hudson, Eric Green, Julian Henry, Shannon Ryan, Manfred Westphal, Chloe Ellers, Michael Cilnis, Erica OConnor, Dru Libby, Stephanie Molina, Roger Widynowski, Leslie Fradkin, Jenifer Sprague, Alex Gillespie, Michael Roach, Jason Clark, Erin Lawhorn, and Molly Heintz, thank you so much for everything.

Writing this book was a dream of mine for years, and to the people who made it come true and have seen this project from proposal to proofreads, I owe more than you can imagine for helping me get this out of my system. Enormous thanks as ever to my agents Daniel Greenberg and Monika Verma, and at Hyperion to my editor Brenda Copeland and Kate Griffin, who made this whirlwind process completely painless, and to Elisabeth Dyssegaard for bringing it in out of the cold.

Many thanks are also due to my fellow historians who have helped me along the path: William Georgiades, Chris Lee, Matthew Tyrnauer, John Travis, Ryan Shiraki, and Vanessa Grigoriadis.

And of course, no family deserves to have this much Idol brought into their lives, but they have stood with me through it all. My thanks to Ali, Len, and Karen Rushfield and to Justin and Renee LaPorte for all their support, and of course to my Idol widow, Nicole LaPorte, who is the wind beneath my wings every day of my life.

What inspired me to write this book, and to take seriously this little singing contest in the first place, was witnessing up close the stories of two groups of people. The first are the incredibly talented professionals who put together the Idol circus week after week. Seeing them work and getting to talk to them about their various craftsfrom construction to design to photography to securing the vast productionhas been an education and an inspiration, and the hours Ive spent being able to look over their shoulders have been some of the most fulfilling of my career. Over the years, Ive spoken to so many members of the crew, some of whom would prefer their names not be mentioned, and I will always remember their skill and dedication. Special thanks to Miles Siggins, Debbie Williams, Kieran Healy, Bruce Gowers, Andy Walmsley, Mezhgan Hussainy, Michael Orland, Debra Byrd, Rickey Minor, Raj Kapoor, and Michael Boschetti for opening their worlds to me over the years. And for this book, I am especially grateful to Simon Fuller, Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Simon Cowell, Nigel Lythgoe, Gail Berman, Mike Darnell, and Preston Beckman for sitting down and sharing their stories and their insight.

But most of all, what has inspired me and kept me going at every stage of this journey has been the experience of, every year, watching a dozen singers step forward and have the guts to go after their dreams. To get to know many of these talented people and their families and to see all they experience during their Idol journeys and beyond has been the reporting experience of a lifetime, and I am forever grateful that so many of them through the years have opened their lives to me and shared those journeys. In particular, I am immensely grateful for their trust to, in chronological order, Nikki McKibbin and Craig Sadler, RJ Helton, Justin Guarini, Kimberley Locke, Kim Caldwell, Jon Peter Lewis, Ace Young, Phil Stacey, Carly and Todd Smithson and Marie Stephens, Brooke White and Dave Ray, Michael Johns and Stacey Vuduris, Joanna Pacitti, Kristin Holt, the entire amazing family Castro, Stephanie Baisey, David and Jeff Archuleta, Alexis Grace, Andrea Perry and Laura McKenzie, Matt Giraud, Jackie Tohn, Alex Wagner Trugman, Megan Joy, Michael Sarver, Scott MacIntyre... and really every last member of seasons 7 and 8. The producers will often make the case that its all about the talent and truly, your stories, your heartbreaks and incredible triumphs, have been what has kept me and millions of people coming back. Thank you for sharing them with us all.

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