Thirty million people watch American Idol. But not Patti LaBelle. “Not anymore,” she said at last week’s GLAAD Media Awards gala. “It’s not good! The people that they let on, they should never let them out of their house. They’re pitiful! They should never leave home, they’re so bad. Let’s be real. I haven’t watched it for two years.” She does pay attention, though. LaBelle says she’s a fan of Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, and Clay Aiken—“people who can bring it, people who can sing.” For the rest, she has but one morsel of advice: “Girl and boy, shut up!”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: April 9, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!