'Idol' Shocker! Another Truth Bared!

"It won't make any difference," he told TV Guide, which put the exchange on its Web site, because news this big you don't hold for a weekly magazine.

"The truth is, we're never judgmental about what people do to earn a living," Warwick added.

He noted they've had strippers on the show before, mentioning Season 1 contestant Nikki McKibbin. "If it were some sort of heavy porn, then maybe we'd have to take action. But certainly not on this."

And, of course, it's true: Stripping is legal in Phoenix, according to The Washington Post's intrepid looker-into of things, Meg Smith.

In the city of Phoenix, you need a license to take your clothes off, which you get from the city clerk for 21 bucks. You must provide your full name, current stage name, height, weight, hair and eye color, date of birth and a digital photo -- but one taken by the city, thank you very much, Smith reports.

TV Guide was having none of this live-and-let-live nonsense, pressing Warwick in re whether he was aware of Hernandez's "past" before it was reported.

Warwick laughed and said it wouldn't have made any difference. He knows lots of people who'd love the opportunity to make a better living by taking their clothes off, he said, and "if the public doesn't like [Hernandez], they'll get rid of him."

So TV Guide put it to The Public:

"Indeed, the big question is: Does Hernandez's stripper past matter to you?" It added: "Let's get to the naked truth. . . . How do you think David performed in the immediate wake of his stripping scandal?"

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But wait -- there's more! Yesterday, in the second installment of its "David Hernandez: Stripper Scandal" report, the Associated Press's Tabloid Bureau broke the story that no finalist has ever been portrayed as openly gay during the first six seasons of "American Idol." In its shocking new report, the AP quotes former Idolette Jim Verraros, who came out after he was a finalist in the first-season competition: "I'm not here to name any names, but I feel like there are some definite possibilities for this to happen this year." He added, "Do I think it'll happen? I don't know. I hope it does."

Now that's the kind of reporting we've come to expect from the Associated Press!