American Idol '07

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Feb. 23, 2007 | 05:00 PM EST

Idol Scandal: Antonella Barba's Sexy Photos Leaked

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She made it through the first round of cuts on Thursday's Idol, but Point Pleasant, N.J., native Antonella Barba has another hurdle to overcome. Scandalous photos of the 20-year-old have been leaked on the Web. Though some of them are relatively innocent, others are far more salacious. (Since we're a family publication, we're not posting these photos ourselves – but they're not difficult to find with a quick Google search.)

Ironically, best friend Amanda Coluccio, who auditioned with Barba and was cut during Hollywood week, tells PEOPLE in its new issue that Barba will "represent New Jersey in a classy way."

The question is: Could this photo scandal disqualify the doe-eyed college student from the competition a la season 2 finalist Frenchie Davis, who was ousted after topless photos of her emerged on a porn Web site?

FOX declined to comment on the matter (reported earlier this week by Access Hollywood), and Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe tells EW.com he was unaware of the photographs.

"We have really good background checks on everybody, and we deal with that every season," he said. "It's sad, isn't it, that your best friends are the ones that come forward with information that will go to Smoking Gun or put your photographs on the Web?"

Meanwhile, TMZ.com reports that Barba's name was more popular than Britney Spears on AOL Search on Thursday.