American Idol

Whether or not you agree with Howard Stern and votefortheworst.com's quest to make Sanjaya the next "American Idol," one thing is for sure -- in Sanskrit his name literally means "victory." Go Sanjy!

Sanjaya is also a character in the Hindu epic story Mahabharata. And according to the bastion of accuracy that is wikipedia.org, the Sanjaya character "is known to be brutally frank in his recital of the day's battle events and his own opinions." TMZ may not be experts on Indian tales, but the "brutal" and "recital" parts couldn't be any more accurate about our furry little Malakar!

America breathlessly awaits (or is that asphyxiation?) seeing if Sanjaya gets one step closer to fulfilling his victorious destiny on tonight's J.Lo infused elimination show.

Olivia Mojica, a top 24 contestant on Season Two of "American Idol," has a sex tape that will be released soon, sources tell TMZ.

We're told the tape is "very explicit" and features 40 minutes of "smoking hot sex." One source who says he has seen the tape put it this way -- "It's the nastiest tape I've ever seen."

We're told the tape was shot with her boyfriend, but we don't know when. A website featuring a preview of the tape will launch soon, similar to the site created specifically for Kim Kardashian's sex tape.

We're told Vivid Entertainment is the front-runner to distribute the tape. Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of the company, said he cannot comment at this time.

Mojica was 18 at the time of her appearance on "American Idol." Lately, she has been singing with the East coast rock band, The Watchdogs.

Sources with the production tell TMZ that the contestants were initially scared to meet La Lopez, based on reports of her alleged diva attitude, but after Jennifer spent time rehearsing their latin-themed numbers with them, the budding singers had nothing but praise for the singer/actress/dancer/producer/designer/jeweler/restaurateur/perfumer/three-time bride. Wepa!

We're told the "Idol" hopefuls thought Jen was "very personable," and that she gave great advice on handling the entertainment biz. Our source says Jenny from the Block kept it "real," and even sat on the floor with the contestants. Can you believe it, yo?

Who needs Grammys, when you got J.Lo style!

Fifty-two million eyeballs (or, making the assumption most people have two eyes, 26 million people) tuned in last night to watch J.Lo coach the contestants, according to Marc Berman from The Programming Insider. That's almost a million less than last week, four million less than the same week last season, and 11 million less than the January premiere. Ouch!

Sanjy's grown some facial hair, and he wants the world to know it!

If you watched last night's J.Lo-mentored edition of "American Idol," you probably noticed Sanjy's freshly-fuzzed face. Our inside source tells TMZ that "It was all [Sanjaya's] idea."

Perhaps the little songbird is trying to address media scrutiny of his "masculinity" by adding his own bit of Tom Selleckness.

While it was a compelling attempt at butching it up, it looked to us like his face was a little dirty. Sanjy warbled a version of "Besame Mucho" (kiss me a lot) and batted his doe eyes at the swooping camera. Did the facial

hair help? You decide.

Sanjy left the "A.I." studio and hammed it up for the cameras, even more than he did during his rendition of "Besame Mucho." Say cheesy!

We're told Virgie Arthur will be fighting for custody of Dannielynn, whether Birkhead is the dad or not. But when it comes to Arthur's track record in child rearing, it's pretty clear she won't win any awards.

Rewind to 1993. Arthur's son, Donald Ray Hart Jr, then 21-years-old, was busted in Conroe, Texas. But it was anything but an ordinary arrest. Hart was charged with aggravated kidnapping, along with three friends. The victim -- a 33-year-old paraplegic. The abducted woman watched in horror as her kidnappers waived a butcher knife in her direction, and discussed plans to murder her. An informant's tip foiled the plot.

Hart pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison.

But that's not all. Hart was also convicted of theft -- he pled guilty to stealing a bunch of livestock.

By the way, Arthur's daughter, Anna Nicole, also hated her. So is Arthur the best candidate for custody? You be the judge.

The sultry Miss Alexander just dyed her hair black, and she's already flaunting the sexy new do on her MySpace page.

Alaina has been romantically linked with fellow Idol, Chris "Timberfake" Richardson, but if she happened to see our video of Chris flirting with "The Hills" star Lauren Conrad, her dark fashion statement could signify that she's through with everything that's "Idol."

Kentucky Fried Chicken has upped the ante on their tasty offer to Sanjaya to see if the extra-crispy Idol will bite!

On top of a lifetime supply of their Famous Bowls, and a charitable donation in his name to Colonel's Scholars -- if Sanjy dons a bowl hairdo during one of his upcoming televised performances, KFC will pay "Idol's" breakout star $5000 in cash -- and give him a starring role in their next Famous Bowl ad! Now that's music to our ears!

In another open letter to Sanjaya, KFC President Gregg Dedrick writes, "The judges and critics may think you're a long shot for a recording contract, but at KFC, we think you're a real 'original.'" Ain't that a bucketful?!

Hopefully, the vocally-challenged showman will take KFC up on their deal, and not chicken out.

Nielsen stats show that the Tuesday performance shows are down about 10 percent compared to last season (from roughly 31 million viewers to 28). This past Wednesday night's results episode, which saw tongue-studded shrieker Gina Glocksen get the boot, was the least watched episode of the season, according to TV Week.

But if you ask "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe what is causing the problem, he'll blame daylight saving time, which started three weeks earlier this year. Ratings tend to dip every year whenever the time change kicks in. "Even if we lost 50 percent of our audience, we'd still be in the top three shows in the country," Lythgoe said at a press conference on Monday. It's good to be king.

The fake photo has been making the Internet rounds, but the original was taken backstage at "American Idol" on February 20.

If the people behind the doctored photo wanted people to believe it was real, using Sanjaya might have been more convincing!

Some serious "American Idol" viewers are still fuming over the fact that Sanjaya Malakar not only remains on the show, but that he wasn't even bottoming out. Now someone has conjured a plan that could help rid the "A.I." stage of any additional hairrific performances ... er, other than the one scheduled for next Tuesday.

At voteAGAINSTtheworst.com, viewers are assigned to contestants for voting purposes -- based on which state you live in -- every state is then assigned to a performer, leaving none dedicated to Sanjaya.

The only way to make this work is for people in these states to actually vote. Unfortunately, since it's been proven that enough people are voting for Sanjaya to keep him on, Fanjayas will have to be converted in order to boot the mildly talented Malakar, whose rendition of "Cheek to Cheek" this week caused Irving Berlin to centrifugally spin in his grave.

Kevin Johnson has decided that he's going to binge eat until Malakar wins the crown. And thanks to the wonderful age of technology, he is posting video messages of his progress on YouTube to take us along for the journey.

If the people at votefortheworst.com and the binging boy have their way, the hula-dancing long-haired songbird will be here to stay.

Shyamali Malakar is Sanjy's sexy 20-year-old big sister. According to her MySpace profile, the underage college student doesn't smoke, but interestingly enough, does drink. Welcome to Hyde!

Her profile also reveals how dedicated some Fanjayas are, with one of Shyamali's MySpace friends commenting that they voted for the 17-year-old phenom 540 times! With support like that, who needs Howard Stern?!

The question burning in the minds of "American Idol" fans: What if Sanjaya actually wins? TMZ has learned that a website is giving its viewers a chance to sound off and answer the searing question.

Ifsanjayawins.com is offering various clothing items and accessories featuring the logo "If sanjaya wins, I will... ," leaving the answer up to the person who purchases the item.

The website allows viewers to answer the question, which is then graded by creators of the site.

Here are a few samples of the posted hypotheticals and their grades:

"If Sanjaya wins, I will have a memorial feast in memory of J, the hungerstriking myspace retard."
Rating: A+

"If Sanjaya wins, I will give up sex ... forever."
Rating: F

"If Sanjaya wins, I will write a letter to American Idol telling them to apologize to William Hung for eliminating him so soon."
Rating: B+

TMZ has spoken with intensely connected sources in the recording industry about the Sanjaya craze, and it's turned the music biz on its ear.

We're told execs at Sony BMG (its 19 Recordings/RCA division records the winner of "Idol") are "really nervous." They now think Sanjaya could win the competition and worry that he's like the new Pet Rock -- the novelty will wear off and his records won't sell.

On the other side of things, we're told a number of songwriters in H-Wood are already quietly writing songs for one person and one person only in the competition -- yes, Sanjaya. As you read this story, musical notes are going up on pages all over the city -- notes Sanjaya probably can't hit.