without my consent," she said during a conference call Friday with reporters from across the country. "I've learned to be careful who you trust." photos.
Publicists for the top-rated Fox show cut off reporters' She did say, though, that the situation was distracting as she "It was difficult," she said. "It wasn't how I intended things to go. I tried to block it out as much as possible.
I'm here to sing. All that other stuff was completely irrelevant." performance.
And, right before she went onto the stage, she said a Barba, 20, attended Roman Catholic grammar school in neighboring Point Pleasant Beach, and went to a Catholic high school in nearby Red Bank before enrolling in Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where she studied architecture.
competition, and has no plans to go back anytime soon. "Right now, I'm going to stay in L.A.
for a week or two," she said. "I want to see what I can do with this for a career. I want to strike while the iron is hot.
" Barba, who played the violin as a youth and gave lessons to neighborhood children, said she would consider acting or modeling, her way. Nor, she added, would she pose nude, or in partial clothing, for any reason. "That is not the way I want to present myself," she said.
"I keep getting told no publicity is bad publicity. Yes, it's true my name is more well-known because of it. But I'm not known for the things I want to be known for.
I'd rather present myself in a more classy way." Residents in Point Pleasant, a Jersey shore town of 18,000 about 60 miles north of Atlantic City, supported Barba when news of the Signs sprouted around town wishing her well. By Friday morning, baseball sign-ups, and even the imminent arrival of spring.
newly famous resident. A mayoral proclamation is in the works, and Memorial Day parade. Barba said she'd be honored to do so.
"We are going to welcome her home with open arms," Konkus said. "She's not a bad person. She's a good person that probably wishes she had used a little more discretion.
But what you saw was "She comes home a little bit older and a lot wiser," Konkus Despite her turbulent time in the national spotlight, Barba has "I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've been given," she said. "All this embarrassment that has come with it, I still think it was worth it." Like Books?
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(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
That's the advice from Antonella Barba, New Jersey's "American Idol" contestant, a day after being voted off the show following two weeks of turbulence over racy photos posted on the Internet.
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