MANILA, Philippines - Four aspirants, including two professionals got the boot in ?American Idol? on Friday.

Plus-size model and reality contest veteran Joanne Borgella was eliminated, along with ?Les Miserables? cast member Colton Berry. Suffering the same fate were two relative newcomers, trade-show model Amy Davis and

?Peter Frampton? look-alike Garret Haley.

Days before the big reveal on Feb. 14, Inquirer Entertainment stumbled upon fan sites/blog reports that accurately predicted the composition of the Top 24 finalists in AI season 7.

These spoiler sites claimed they had arrived at the list by interviewing contestants, particularly the rejects.

One blog report complained that the world-famous reality show was ?stacking the show with professionals ? to combat Sanjaya fever.?

Sanjaya Malakar is the wildly popular contestant from season 6 who stayed in the competition purportedly because of an organized block that was ?voting for the worst.?

An anti-?Idol? site called, yes, ?Vote for the Worst? alleged that pros had been ?planted? in the show and several made it to the top round.

Wire reports zeroed in on Irish-born Carly Smithson who had recorded an album under MCA. One such report said her 2001 CD ?Ultimate High? flopped even after the label spent $2 million promoting it.

Said a Reuters report: ?[AI?s] integrity as a contest for raw ... talent was called into question again after [the] Irish singer ... advanced to the top rung of the competition this week.?

No secret

The AI website responded to the controversy by saying that anyone could join the search for as long as he or she didn?t have a ?current management or recording deal.?

Another blogger pointed out that Smithson wasn?t the only pro in the Top 24. Australian Michael Johns fronted for the bands The Rising and Film. With the latter group, he was reportedly signed to Maverick Records.

Kristy Lee Cook was supposedly signed to Arista Nashville; Robbie Carrico was a member of the boy band Boyz-N-Girlz United.

AI isn?t hiding the finalists? professional backgrounds. Their official resumés, e-mailed to the Inquirer by Star World (airing station in Asia; locally it?s QTV), mentioned, ?Carrico once toured with [Britney] Spears.?

The bios also disclosed that finalist Borgella was the 2005 winner of the reality series ?Mo?Nique?s Fat Chance,? and that David Archuleta won in the Junior Singer category of ?Star Search? at age 12.

A US entertainment show questioned how amateurs could possibly compete with pros.

A blogger echoed the sentiment: ?Many people watch AI [thinking] they can help make the next big music star. Would the ... thousands who auditioned this year be happy to learn that their spot was given to someone who already had connections??

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