Posted on 12/09/2004 7:28:16 AM PST by wjersey
If students earned grades from the school of hard knocks, the teenagers in Clearview Regional High's Vocal Ensemble deserve an A for stomaching the sour taste of fame.
Give the grownups around them high marks, too, for trying to protect the kids from another close encounter of the mean kind with aw-shucks American Idol star Clay Aiken.
Me, I'm not afraid of freckle face.
He has more hair than I do, but I could take him in a wrestling match.
And I have a zero-tolerance policy for Hollywood heavies pulling ego trips on teenagers and teachers.
Which is what happened last week when the Gloucester County school's vocal group got the opportunity of a lifetime to sing with Aiken at his sold-out concert in Washington Township.
By night's end, the Claymates had been bullied and berated. They were stiffed for their services.
When one grown-up dared to speak up, Aiken dressed her down.
He told her she was a disgrace.
Only it wasn't some pushy stage mom he had tossed from the performance hall. It was the 2003 New Jersey teacher of the year.
Not that she, or anybody at Clearview, wants to relive the humiliation.
They fear paybacks. Supposedly, the boy toy threatened to "make trouble" if they talked to reporters.
As one parent confided: "My son wants a future in show business. I don't want him saying anything negative about the industry."
The story of fear and loathing in the key of C begins before Thanksgiving.
That's when the Clearview singers got a last-minute invite to perform with Aiken when his "Joyful Noise Tour" stopped here last Thursday.
Not long ago, Aiken was just another geek with glasses and bad hair.
Thanks to his American Idol makeover, he's adored by teenage girls, gay men, and a group calling itself Lecherous Broads for Clay Aiken.
As I type, he's got both an inspirational memoir and CD on the charts.
"A Clay Aiken Christmas" aired on NBC last night, with Barry Manilow among the very special guests.
Tickets for his concert cost up to $127.50. At his official Web site, www.clayaiken.com, you can even buy holiday wrapping paper stamped with Clay's face for $15.
Clearview's Vocal Ensemble doesn't have a merchandising deal yet, but it does have a sterling reputation.
It has sung Mozart's Requiem at Carnegie Hall. It has performed on the Today show.
Details of the students' real-life pop opera emerged from interviews with people too scared to let me quote them - and from one teacher's account e-mailed to friends and posted at the Web site www.gawker.com.
Those in the know confirmed all the ugly details.
How Aiken went diva on them and reneged on promised face time and autographs with the students.
How he sicced security goons on a student who snapped a photo during rehearsal. How he fought with the award-winning teacher who dared to stand up for her kids.
How the pop star's people made a big show of handing over a promised $500 donation to the Vocal Ensemble - and how the envelope was empty.
And how Aiken's crew kept the students hungry for hours, only to deliver a meager supply of ice-cold chicken nuggets just before show time.
Happy Meals - for high schoolers?
What were they thinking?
I'm not surprised Aiken's reps didn't return a call for comment.
After teachers told me they couldn't talk, Clearview Superintendent Mike Toscano spoke for all of them.
Ever diplomatic, he said the brush with greatness had taught the students lessons they could never get in a classroom.
"They got a bigger picture of the music industry," Toscano said.
"They got their eyes opened. They got a taste of real-life show business maybe they didn't have before."
And if sours them on it for good?
They can thank the American Idol.
Well then I hope that's the case (not true) and that fame isn't going to his head.
My wife loves the guy, personally he gives me the creeps. I think it's becuase his eyes are always so wide open, like he's a giant hoot owl.
Regardless if it's not true then whoever wrote the article should issue a formal apology.
He has contacts now. A lot of people who wear them have that wide open look........LOL. He's all "prettied" up now.
I was going to the store the other day and couldn't get passed the area Y; TV cameras everywhere; I found out later that Clay had come to visit his friends. If that is what it's like at an unscheduled visit, I can't imagine what a scheduled one is like; life has surely changed for him. He can't even do regular things anymore.
The Raleigh Christmas parade usually draws about 15 to 20 thousand; he was the grand marshall last year and 100,000 showed up; my son-in-law ran into two woman looking for a place to park for the parade the next day -- and they had come from Mississippi!
I can imagine if people don't get the attention they think they deserve, things like this story can and do happen; frankly, after reading on down the thread, it sounds like the teacher was the problem. Sounds to me like she's embarassed and struck back.
This guy works with handicapped and unachieving kids; he has for years; I just can't see it. But I will find out next week.
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