Idolator

TMZ first reported it yesterday and now the Associated Press has confirmed it: The American Idol braintrust has banned David Archuleta's father/musical arranger/puppet-string-puller, Jeff, from the show's rehearsals, after months of speculation about his stage-dad tendencies and overbearing presence. The final straw? The cheesy "Beautiful Girls" interpolation into David's performance of "Stand By Me" last Tuesday, which not only made the song's message completely incoherent, it cost the producers an undisclosed amount of licensing money. This raises a host of questions regarding the junior Archuleta's last two weeks in the competition (Will the news, and the apparent fact that Jeff is the first person to be banned from the Idol backstage ever, garner a lot of sympathy votes? Will this be his chance to show the haters that he can, in fact, interpret and arrange music without Daddy pulling the strings, or will he wilt under the pressure on Tuesday night? Is this abortion of a season over yet?) But leave it to the Archie-crazed commenters at rickey.org to ask the important questions regardnig this whole story.

Who gives a shit about Associated Press? I only believe whatever comes out from the NYT times sorry. These journalist needs to get a freakin life. LEAVE ARCHIE ALONE!!!

Well, I guess it could have been worse—the person could have said that they only believe what they read on Perez.

AP Source: Jeff Archuleta Loses "Idol" Backstage Pass [AP; HT DHMBIB]
Associated Press: Jeff Archuleta Banned From Rehearsals On American Idol [rickey.org]