The Top 12 Idols Party – and Spill Their Secrets
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All for one! The Top 12 live it up a little at a bash in their honor. Photo by: Francis Specker / Landov |
Lakisha Jones told us her 4-year-old daughter Brionne is ready for her to come home to Fort Meade, Md. "I told her, 'Not yet! Give me 12 weeks to make this happen and to have our life change.' I told her to just be patient and Mommy's coming.' We talk on the phone every day and she's been here all week. She was at the shows but she was in the green room and she gives me high-fives and says, 'Mommy, it's show time! You are gonna make it! You are gonna win!' "
Chris Sligh revealed that he's lost 30 lbs. since Hollywood week – thanks to a little help from pal Chris Richardson, who's been acting as his personal trainer. "I am trying to lose about 40 to 50 more pounds before the end of the season, so we'll see what happens. I am eating less, eating better and drinking a lot of water. I have gotten soda out of my system for a while now, and I've been running and doing a lot of cardio." Meanwhile, Richardson – who revealed on last Tuesday's performance show that he was once overweight – works out every morning to stay trim. "I wanted to show that this is something that actually happened to me and I did it, so anybody can do it," he says of his own gradual 45-lb. weight loss.
Meanwhile, show darling Melinda Doolittle is homesick – for her tennis shoes. Having to perform in high heels has been an adjustment. "I just need a little bit of a thicker heel because I fall," she admitted.
Blake Lewis told us he's a little bit nervous about performing on the upcoming theme shows. "Those are tough for me because I have such an eclectic taste in music," he told us. "I don't really listen to a lot of the stuff that's been on the radio. I'm the kind of person who reads the back of a CD cover and reads someone's name in the thank-you notes and then wants to listen to that person."
Gina Glocksen was missing an important part of her everyday accessories until recently: her tongue piercing. The singer went without it the first two weeks of performing, but after Simon Cowell complained that she wasn't as edgy as he thought, she brought it back. "Being in the clothes that I would just wear on the streets at home, I felt like I was just performing at a club in my hometown," she says of last Wednesday's performance show.
And who knew that one of the Idols was a closet Star Wars geek? "I love the movies, I love the characters and I love the idea and escape of it," Brandon Rogers revealed. "I was really into it when I was in college – I went to go see The Phantom Menace and stayed overnight! That's my little secret. Well, not anymore!"
Finally, Stephanie Edwards told us she was sad to see her roommate, Antonella Barba, go home. "I am going to die without Antonella!" she told us. "I love Antonella to death and I know that she is going to support me. That is my girl and she knows it. I love her. She's a star and she's beautiful and she said, 'We're going to do a video together one day,' and I'm like, 'I know that's what's going to happen.' "
