After weeks of breathless, pearl-clutching promotion for the infamous Nicki Minaj vs. Mariah Carey fight, tonight’s American Idol revealed what prompted Minaj’s freakout in the first place. The Charlotte auditions episode featured a somewhat rational debate (prompted by Minaj) on whether a contestant should feel “forced” to “do the country thing,” and then we saw Minaj determinedly stomping off the set after complaining that “Maybe I should get off the f—ing panel.”
What we didn’t see, of course, was a single second of Minaj’s cringe-inducing motormouth-y rant captured in October’s buzz-magnet handheld video. In fact, it’s likely the “fight” we saw tonight had no real linear connection with the leaked footage, which makes the over-promotion even more obnoxious. Fox chose to save face — including any of that leaked footage on-air would be a huge turnoff, and Minaj has enough detractors as it is. READ FULL STORY »
