The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of a Would-Be Idol

At 1:13 a.m. ET Thursday, roughly around the time West Coast viewers were seeing "American Idol" judges tell former professional singer Joanna Pacitti that -- despite her having forgotten her lyrics during every song she sang during Hollywood Week -- they'd picked her to be one of this season's 36 semifinalists, Fox network blasted its traditional "American Idol Semifinalists Revealed!" e-mail to The Reporters Who Cover Television:

"Auditions ended tonight for the eighth season of AMERICAN IDOL as the Top 36 semifinalists were revealed by Simon, Paula, Randy and Kara. It's now up to America to decide who advances in the competition and moves one step closer to becoming the next AMERICAN IDOL," Fox gushed.

Very business-as-usual stuff. But, technically, not accurate. Viewers, who can start voting for their faves next week, won't get to vote for Pacitti -- she's been tossed from the show.

"It has been determined that Joanna Pacitti is ineligible to continue in the competition," Fox said yesterday, pre-dawn, in a statement.

Joanna was disqualified to "avoid the possible appearance of impropriety," explained a source who apparently was very busy making the press rounds yesterday at a more decent hour because virtually all of TRWCT got the same insider "scoop."

Coincidentally -- or not -- the decision to whack Pacitti comes a few days after the tabloid the Star came out with a story noting she had personal ties to two execs at 19 Entertainment -- one of the companies that produces "Idol." Fox suits declined to discuss the report.

Pacitti was one of what is shaping up to be a regular type in the "Idol" repertoire: a singer who had been sorta kinda on the verge of making it in the music biz, but fell off the edge of the Earth and was now trying to claw her way back.

She first appeared on the show during this season's auditions in Louisville. The show's traditional flyover country audition episodes were all shot last summer.

Joanna Pacitti, viewers were told in that episode, had moved to L.A. on her own when she was just 16 to try to make it as a singer, which, she notes, was "much harder than anybody could imagine" and now she has "lost a lot of confidence."

(According to various older news reports on Pacitti, she'd gotten far enough along in her career to open for Sheryl Crow, cut an album, appear on MTV's "True Life" behind-the-scenes documentary about the music industry, and sang on the soundtrack for "Legally Blonde," among other accomplishments. Back in the day, she went simply by the name "Joanna.")

"Wait a minute, weren't you on A&M Records?" "Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi exclaimed when Joanna entered the audition room in Louisville.

"You were signed, right? This is Joanna Pacitti. I know this girl!"