But that's where you're wrong, because… oh, actually, no. There really isn't a lot of difference between going on American Idol and the naked penis thing.

In fact, they're so similar that American Idol's head honcho has decided to allow David Hernandez – the American Idol contestant with a murky male stripper past – to stay on the show even though it's patently, patently wrong to do so. Surely American Idol contestants should start the slow depraved slide into humiliating public nudity after they've left the show, not before. Cosmic order like this should not be trifled with.

One of the problems with shows like American Idol – especially in the early stages – is that it's hard to tell the singers apart, which is why the singers who do the best on American Idol always have a gimmick to help them stand out. Taylor Hicks had his scary facial tics, Ruben Studdard had his super super obesity and now David Hernandez has his grubby past as a naked male stripper.

In recent weeks American Idol's David Hernandez had come to be best-known for being the boy with a voice pure enough to pierce Paula Abdul's heart. But a few years before that he was probably best known for being the nude boy with the waggly willy. Because yesterday it was announced that American Idol's David Hernandez used to be a male stripper who specialised in giving lapdances to men.

Nobody knew how this would affect David Hernandez's place on American Idol – in 2003 a contestant turned up on an adult website and was promptly dismissed – but now an American Idol bigwig has said that Hernandez's position is safe. The Boston Herald reports:

“American Idol” producer Ken Warwick came out yesterday to assure contestant David Hernandez that his not-so-secret past as a male stripper doesn’t mean a thang. “The truth is we’re never judgmental about what people do to earn a living,” he told TVGuide.com yesterday. “They’ve gotta put food in people’s mouths.” However, Warwick added, had Hernandez’s exotic past involved “some sort of heavy porn, then maybe we’d have to take action.”

What? David Hernandez had to put food in people's mouths? That's disgusting, we just thought he did the odd naked lapdance every now and then.

Still, we're not entirely convinced that American Idol has made the right decision regarding David Hernandez here. Not just because it seems as though this is all helping to set up the second American Idol sex tape of the year, but because it also sends the wrong message out to the kids.

What American Idol is effectively saying is that you ambitious youngsters will get a good grounding in the machinations of the showbusiness industry if you degrade yourself night after night in front of a small group of creepy rich men who'll slide a small amount of money under your thong if you thrust your genitals in their cackling faces. When in fact… no, actually, that is a pretty decent showbiz grounding after all. Carry on.

Read more:

‘Idol’ backs finalist’s strip club past - Boston Herald