A manager at the subtly named Phoenix strip club Dick’s Cabaret has told the Associated Press that American Idol contestant David Hernandez worked there for three years as a dancer, where he danced nude for and doled out the lap dances to the club’s (mostly male) clientele. Relishing the publicity garnered by Google searches for “david hernandez dick’s cabaret,” club manager Gordy Bryan told AP that Hernandez “had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here.” Hernandez is coming off a good week on Idol, having burned his way through “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” during last Tuesday’s 1970s-themed week. But will the unveiling of Hernandez’s stripper past get him removed early from the competition?
Probably not. Not only are we a long way from the days of Frenchie Davis, whose topless photos got her kicked off the show, the Antonella Barba precedent–in which “racy,” yet not quite softcore photos of the vocally challenged Jersey girl surfaced on the Internet during her days as a Vote For The Worst darling–seems to apply to this situation instead; the only photos of Hernandez in stripper-ish mode that Vote For The Worst’s MySpace-scouring denizens have found so far are so tame that even Miley Cyrus can’t see what the big deal is.
not surprised - he must have a hot bod…
This guy was completely spit out of a gay clone factory, no doubt about it. You can probably find a 6 pack of him at every convenience store in the Castro.
@Chris N.: Oh no, Danny is “412% Gay” as one of my gay boys would put it.
Wow, I can’t believe this story actually made the AP. The wire reporters were probably tickled that they got to write “Dick’s Cabaret.”
The interesting thing to me is not whether he gets kicked off, but will he continue to insist that he’s straight? I don’t believe Idol has ever had an out gay contestant on the show. I wonder how the producers are going to handle this.
@extracrispy: He may well be gay, but a whole lot of male strippers are just “gay-for-pay.”
And the producers are probably going to greet this with stony silence.
@ghostyhead: Oh, he’s gay. No question.
Danny Noriega isn’t gay?
The Frenchie Davis things looks more and more hypocritical (and dare I say racist?) with each passing year.
Three years? Did he really think that wasn’t going to come out?
At this point, I wouldn’t doubt if the producers knew. Every week Idol has been in the news and there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?
I am suddenly interested in this American Idol show everyone keeps nattering about. Thank you very much, Internet! There goes two nights of my week!