A New Scandal

And here I was looking forward to a quiet day today. Thanks to Derek for the heads-up…

A new “Idol” scandal has emerged—not about one of the top 12, but about a former contestant from season four that we never really got answers about.

I have always referred to Mario Vasquez as “He Who Shall Not Be Named” since I felt he used the show to further his career and then quit to avoid its stringent contract. I never felt that was quite fair.

But now a lawsuit claims that there were other reasons for Mario’s shocking and sudden departure…

Magdaleno Olmos, a former “Idol” production assistant, has sued Mario Vasquez and “American Idol” for sexual harassment and for firing him for reporting his claims.

The lawsuit alleges that Vasquez left the show after the accusations came to light. Olmos states that people with the show demanded that he not tell anyone about the incident, including his own family. He was fired in May 2005, at the end of the fourth season.

Since I consider this a family blog, I won’t go into details about what the lawsuit alleges Vasquez did. I’ll only say that one alleged incident involved Vasquez following Olmos into the restroom. If you want to read all the sordid details for yourself, you can visit http://www.accesshollywood.com/pdf/MarioVazquezLawsuitWatermark.pdf.

I’m usually a little skeptical about lawsuits that take so long to surface, but this one I’m not sure about. We’ll see what happens from here…