Idol Worship: This Week In 'AI' History

Here's one for the "'memba him?" file: Corey Clark. It was six years ago today that the cornrowed contestant was disqualified from season two's final 12 for withholding information about a prior arrest. Said scuffle with Kansas law enforcement involved charges of battery and resisting arrest, to which he pleaded "no contest" on December 4, 2002, days after he made it through to Idol's Top 24. But according to a statement released by the show's producers on March 31, 2003, Clark failed to disclose the incident, which they said didn't come up during a routine background check because his name was misspelled in the police report — an assertion Clark later challenged, alleging that his dismissal was prompted by a disagreement he had with producers over Idol's iron-clad contract. The week of his ouster, no one was eliminated — an Idol first.

Of course, that wasn't the last we heard of Corey Clark. In May 2005, he went public with what he claimed was a sexual relationship with judge Paula Abdul — one that also involved one-on-one coaching, expensive shopping sprees and many long phone calls. He shared the details of their tryst in a book he self-published online, They Told Me to Tell the Truth, So... (The Sex, Lies and Paulatics of One of America's Idols), and in numerous television interviews including an extended sit-down with Primetime Live. Three months after his PR campaign launched, an independent counsel hired by Fox to investigate the nature of the relationship concluded that Clark's claims "have not been substantiated by any corroborating evidence or witnesses, including those provided by Mr. Clark, and Ms. Abdul expressly denies that any such relationship ever existed," but it did acknowledge that the two had talked on the phone while he was a contestant.

In the last few years, Clark's public life may have quieted down some, but his legal troubles persist. In June 2006, Clark's wife filed for a domestic violence protective order and, a month later, he was arrested for trespassing. The next summer, Clark was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. As for his music career? It fizzled as fast as his footnote status.