Anyone who has been following VFTW this season knows that our very favorite contestant was the amazing Brenna Gethers. Brenna wasn't the worst singer on the show, but we loved her because she wasn't afraid to be herself when the other Idol hopefuls were kissing butt to advance to the next round. Her spirit and personality shined through, and we were sad to see her leave us way too soon in the top 20 results show. Brenna found out what huge fans we are and agreed to sit down for a great interview for the website.

VFTW: Did you go into the show thinking that you were out to make good TV?

Brenna: Initially went into the show thinking it was just a singing competition, however when I saw how the show was crafted, I was ready to make good TV.

VFTW: Those of us at the VFTW website almost elevate our favorite contestants to cult love status, and I'm sure we'll still be talking about you for years to come. How does it feel to have so many people who are now huge fans of yourself and your music who look at you as an influential figure?

Brenna: I am very grateful for my fans! I love them all! It is an honor to have people that are genuinely interested in my music and in my well being. THANKS VFTW FANS...keep those boards filled with your ideas and opinions.

VFTW: How accurate do you think your portrayal on the show was? Were you playing up your personality for the cameras or did we see the real Brenna?

Brenna: Brenna Gethers is not just a one dimensional person, however that is how I was portrayed on the show. Reality shows craft the "reality" they wanted the viewers to see and know. I did not understand this until I participated in this show. I am naturally full of energy and competitive and for the producers of the show that equaled ratings which equaled dollars. I do keep it real, and for some people real was really uncomfortable, but I will not stop being me.

VFTW: We didn't get to see you until your famous "bling bling and shine on" quote in the Hollywood rounds. What song did you audition with and how did the judges respond?

Brenna: They held me back honey. I think the show knew once I was on the screen, others would be eclipsed. By the time I said that quote, I had been through several rounds of American Idol. When I auditioned for the judges, I sang The Drifters 1960’s classic "Up On the Roof."

VFTW: Was it hard working with your Hollywood group? Marcy seemed like a pain in the butt who just complained about you every chance she got.

Brenna: LOL...I wish I could tell you everything that happened in Hollywood. I don't mind working in a group, but I think one of the twins said it best, "This is why I don't do groups." LOL…Marcy who? I know that name sounds familiar but who is she again, j/k.

VFTW: Was there anything that happened in the Hollywood rounds that you wish they had shown on TV?

Brenna: I really enjoyed the Hollywood rounds. Until that point, I had never been to California, so although I was on business, I was seeing new things everyday. It was great! However, I wish they would have aired me singing Al Green's, "Let's Stay Together." I ripped that song, and did it like no one else! In another round, I gave Simon a stern talking to, however I think that would have embarrassed him if they showed that, it was funny.

VFTW: Did you have any other songs that you wanted to sing if you had made it to the next round, and did you have any songs that you couldn't get cleared that you wanted to sing?

Brenna: I was torn between singing Aerosmith and Donna Summer, however I am not a rocker or a disco queen. I wish I could have the chance to sing some Mary J. Blige; I really enjoy her music.

VFTW: During a few of the performances during the top 24 show, you were in the background making faces when some of the contestants would hit bad notes, and I was making those same faces while watching at home. Were you reacting to the fact that those contestants (Stevie Scott and Kinnik) were incredibly off key, or was it a misunderstanding because you were into the music?

Brenna: LOL..I am glad someone had the "balls" to ask me that. Actually, I feel music. I listen and feel it. I actually wasn't making nasty faces, I was getting funky with the music, and when I like something it's hard for me to hide how I feel.

VFTW: Had you heard of votefortheworst.com prior to going on the show? While you were on the show, did you know that you were our favorite, and do you know if the contestants on the show ever talked about the website?

Brenna: Well I had never heard of this website prior to the show. I really didn't go online when I was on the show, there was barely enough time to just relax. I might have heard the website's name tossed around once or twice. So I know other contestants have heard about your site.

VFTW: Did the producers of the show ever address the fansites? Did they ever tell you to avoid reading the message boards or give you any rules regarding what you could do on the internet?

Brenna: Well...because gossip can be so harmful and hurtful, it was common knowledge to stay away.

VFTW: Being that you were eliminated in the top 20, what kind of contract did you have to sign with the show? Are you limited from doing certain things after the show?

Brenna: I did have to sign a contract, as with any reality show you see on TV. That is how a show controls what will be offered to the viewing audience. The show wants you to buy the CD of the next American Idol, not your favorite artist from the show. That has not been stopping me from the opportunities I have been receiving. I can't get into how long I am contractually obligated, hopefully I wont have I won't have a head of gray hair by the time I am released from it.

VFTW: Paris Bennett said in an interview that she did a happy dance when you were eliminated from the competition because she really didn't like you. Of course, those were fighting words for us, and Paris became VFTW enemy number one. Had you heard about this and what is your reaction?

Brenna: Your montage put it eloquently [Dave's note: In the Brenna Gethers montage that we made, we referred to Paris as a "dumb bitch"]. In a song I wrote, entitled Coal To My Diamond, I address that issue. Honestly, she is a little kid, she's 17, and I am a grown woman. My play dates ended in the 1980's.

VFTW: In many articles, I read about the tragedy that struck your family when you were younger, losing two fathers during your childhood. I think it's awesome that you're such a strong person to be able to get through something like that, and were you at all annoyed that the show played up certain contestant's backstories (such as Kellie Pickler's father in jail) while ignoring that you didn't have such an easy life yourself?

Brenna: The show is called American Idol, which is supposed to be based on singing ability. I was not willing to or cry my way to the top or into any positions for some money. I cannot and will not do that. Pity is a strong tool, and I witnessed people do things for money that I would never consider. I could have come out with that information, or even the fact that my grandmother was dying from liver cancer (she passed away a week after I was eliminated), I chose not to. Everyone has a story. My story is not more painful than yours, pain is pain. Why focus on the pain? Why not live?

VFTW: In some post-show interviews, you talked about the fact that you're a religious person, and I read that you were a member of the church choir. Does religion play a large part in your life?

Brenna: Religion doesn’t play so much of a big part in my life as my relationship with God, and there is a difference. I am grateful that He is in my life. Without Him, nothing is possible, but with Him ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Life is more fruitful with Him.

VFTW: I also read in an article that you were an honor student, a member of the chess club, and a black belt in karate. If you could sit down with the 3 judges and challenge one to a chess match, one to a spelling bee, and one to a karate match, which judge would you pick for each and why?

Brenna: What a great question! Hmmm…I would challenge Simon to the chess match, because I would like to see if he really can predict the future, like he does on the show. I would challenge Paula to a spelling bee; something tells me that I would win that competition hands down. Lastly, I would challenge Randy to a karate match; I want to see how fast he can move. Wouldn’t you like to see him in karate gear?

VFTW: Do you feel that American Idol's voting process is fair and that all of the votes are counted?

Brenna: I will have to answer this one like the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton: that depends on what your definition of fair is.

VFTW: What are your future plans in the entertainment industry, and will we be seeing a Brenna Gethers album in the future?

Brenna: I am currently recording two albums, a gospel compilation and my own album. I have been approached for films, theatre, and other projects. I have some important meetings lined up. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

VFTW: Was there any other backstage drama that we would be surprised to learn about?

Brenna: People will do some nasty, compromising, and crazy things to become famous. I’ll keep it at that.

VFTW: What was your favorite moment of the entire process?

Brenna: I actually have two favorite moments. The first was the Top 24 selection. Hearing Simon Cowell say that I was selected was great. I was validated as a good singer then, and that can never be taken away. The second more infamous moment was Last Dance Encore. In my heart of hearts, I knew it was my night to go, but I didn’t practice my song at all. I like the way I spiced it up by adding, “America Let’s Make Some Money.” HA!!! Hope that makes the DVD.

VFTW: Is there a message you'd like to send to your fans who love you?

Brenna: Thanks to all my fans out there who have supported me from day one. Without you guys, I would not be in the position I am in now. I want each and everyone to know that you can follow your dreams. It can be scary and tough, but it is worth it. Keep God first and anything is possible. Lastly, never give up on your dreams its true, because if you have a plan it’s easy to do, and if haters want to hate, let them hate on you, because haters are the fuel for your renewal! P.S. Did you guys really think I was the worst? MUCH LOVE!

Thanks again, Brenna, and we wish you lots of luck in the future. We can't wait to pick up your albums and to see what you'll be doing next! We're keeping those fingers and toes crossed.

VFTW receives many (many, many...) letters asking us how we could have picked poor little Kellie Pickler as the worst American Idol. We've heard from people that they love Kellie's naivete and that she's just a charming North Carolina girl who doesn't know any better. We've even heard from old friends of Kellie's and her middle school cheerleading coach. Some say that Kellie is a sweet girl, but many more say that Kellie is not as nice as she wants you to believe. We find ourselves leaning toward the latter.

As many of you have figured out, Kellie Pickler is most likely putting on an act. Not many people are that ignorant (well, maybe her clone Carrie Underwood is). To us at Votefortheworst.com, it's obvious that Kellie is playing up her "oh, I'm just an ignorant country girl" routine to get votes. Miss Picker's vomit inducing antics are truly worthy of the VFTW crown. At first, we were surprised that no one else was noticing this besides us, but then many places are picked up on Kellie's lies, including a very well written piece in the blog Clyde's All Purpose Center which helped with some of our sources.

Following are some of the lies and half-truths that Kellie has been shown telling us. We've revamped this section to make it more fact based with links to information all around the Internet. We think Kellie Pickler deserves the VFTW crown for putting on such a desperate and ridiculous act, and we were more than happy to help her last well into the competition.

VFTW is in no way responsible for the accuracy of the information given by any source... but rest assured, we aren't making this stuff up. Read on and weep. Oh, and Vote for the Worst, too.

KELLIE'S LIE #1: "I've barely sung in front of people before."

This is completely false and, frankly, we are surprised that very few people have called her on this one. Kellie has, indeed, sung in front of people and is no stranger to the stage. Eventually, she even changed her statement to "I've only sang in the shower before", which is an even lamer lie. Kellie won a county beauty pageant when she was 17 and subsequently competed to become Miss North Carolina. Oh, and her talent at both pageants? It wasn't baton twirling. Do 'Broken Wing' and 'Independence Day' sound familiar to you? And in beauty pageants, don't they wear fake eyelashes? The kind Kellie was talking about never having worn before? That's not all. Just last year, Kellie competed in a North Carolina version of American Idol called Gimme the Mike! which had a large audience. She won 2nd place after singing a bum note (Kellie, sing a bum note? Never!) and had plenty of television exposure on this show as well. She also sang at the opening of evil empire Walmart in her hometown. No matter how you slice it, that's more than just "in the shower". It's obvious that by pretending that she has never sung in front of an audience before, Kellie can use nerves as her excuse for singing poorly when that's probably not the case at all.

KELLIE'S LIE #2: "What's calamari? What's a spinach salad? What's salmon?"

Kellie Pickler is known for saying stupid things on television. "What's a ballsy?" comes to mind. No one is stupid enough to ask that. No one except fake Kellie. We decided to do a little investigation to find out just how backwoods Kellie's home town of Albemarle, North Carolina really is. Wait a minute... JD Shuckers has salmon AND calamari on the menu. That must just be a fluke though. Let's try another restaurant. How about The Boardroom? Oh hey, it says they have spinach salads and salmon. It could just be a coincidence though. How about 304 Pontiac Pointe? They have calamari too, and they've even recently named it after Kellie. Miss Pickler has to have been to one of these restaurants at some point in her life and seen these items on the menu, if not seen people eat them. One angry North Carolinan writes in reply to EW's Pop Watch

"I'm from North Carolina and it makes me sick that this girl is representing us. Contrary to popular belief we eat salmon, spinach and calamari and we know the difference between a minx and a mink. It's amazing that while she's getting her fake tan, teeth whitened and hair done that she has never run across SALMON before.

Touché, intelligent North Carolinan. Touché.

KELLIE'S LIE #3: "I'm just so gosh darn likeable."

Many people love Kellie because she's so likeable. We've been told by many people, though, that Kellie is no peach in real life. First, TMZ.com has reported that Kellie became fairly arrogant in Hollywood, telling the chef that he's lucky to be cooking for her. Bitterwaitress.com also has an account from a waitress who wasn't happy with Kellie's dinner party:

Okay, [Kellie] was with 5 other people, a couple of which I recognized as American Idol contestants and the others I didn't recognize. She was mouthy and condescending and just all around bitchy. She bitched at me because we didn't have the right bottled water, and then she sent her food back. On top of that, a crappy tip.

Sounds like someone's head is getting pretty big. Kellie is also rumored to have pissed off Paula. MSNBC reports:

“Paula is a little irked that Kellie is acting as if she doesn’t need her,” an ‘Idol’ insider told the mag. “Kellie has got Simon’s vote, so Paula feels Kellie is working Simon and not bothering with her.”

Pickler certainly had Simon's vote, as well as it seems his one gun salute. Simon was either smitten by the minx's looks or her marketability, but the so called "honest" judge was less than honest after her performances. "How Far" was a vocal mess, yet he praised her anyway. Who knows what's going on between the two of them, but apparently it has alienated Paula.

KELLIE'S LIE #4: "I don't know what I'm doing."

The naive act that Kellie put on every week is wore thin for most viewers, because it became more obvious that she wasn't genuine. She was repeating "I'm a mink" almost every single week just to get more attention on camera, even when everyone else tired of her antics. It seems that Kellie wasn't even naive back in high school, where PhillyBurbs.com reports her prom dress looked a little too R-rated for comfort. I highly doubt Miss "I Don't Have Much of a Lovelife" didn't know what she was doing in a barely there prom dress. Reporter Dave McGurgan states:

"The scantily-clad Pickler allegedly wore nothing more than a skimpy halter top with a low-rise, barely-there bottom to her prom. The outfit shows off what appears to be Kellie's pierced belly button, her flat stomach and her sultry, curvy teen bod. Experts agree: She's hot!"

This, my friends, is what we call a minx. The same article also has a picture of Kellie's high school yearbook, where her father writes

"Your smile, singing, and witty ways have helped me through some tough times."

I thought she only sang in the shower, though. How can her singing have helped him through hard times if she never did it in front of anyone? And who would describe the Kellie that we know as witty? Her stupid act is anything but witty. Of course, that's because Kellie probably knows exactly what she's doing. When Kellie won the 2004 Miss Stanly County Pageant Crown, her grandfather, Ken Morton, was there to watch. Fayetteville Online has a quote from Morton, saying

“Her platform [in the pageant] was you don’t have to be a product of your environment. And that’s where she went with it.”

That's a pretty worthwhile and interesting platform. The Kellie we know, though, wouldn't even be able to pronounce the word en-vie-er-ment. And if you don't have to be a product of your environment, doesn't that include acting like a hick on television because you're from North Carolina? Kellie seems to have completely discarded this advice to play up that she is merely a product of her environment. Her tough, tough (daddy's in jail), very tough (mom left me), oh so tough (did I mention dad in jail?) environment. Finally, Kellie also admitted during a show clip that she didn't know who Stevie Wonder was, but prior to that she started crying, tears streaming down, when Stevie first walked into the room. So either she's lying about knowing who Stevie is or she started crying for absolutely no reason. Either way, that's pretty dumb.

KELLIE'S LIE #5: "I should be the American Idol because I deserve it."

Miss Kellie Pickler has reminded us at every turn that her mother left her, that her father is in jail, and that she lives with her grandfather. Isn't it a bit presumptuous to say that you "deserve" something that everyone else is working for as well? Brenna Gethers lost two fathers in her life, and Idol did not play up this story one bit. Neither did Brenna. Melissa McGhee also had both of her parents in jail, and she never brought it up on the show either. Interestingly enough, Melissa made a bit of a reference to this in her biography on the official Idol website, but it was then taken down. Kellie's information remains intact. Kellie also seems to have had some good fortune in her "difficult" life. Jade9, who blogs on the official Idol message board, writes about a comment sent to her

Did any of you know she went to an expensive dance school? She has won the Miss Stanly County Pageant which includes scholarship money, endorsements, advertising spots and many more incentives.

If that's right, then it seems like Kellie isn't as down on her luck as she wants us to believe. Kellie also decided to fly her favorite hairstylist from Charlotte in to do her hair for country night. Her stylist's price per cut? $300. If Kellie can afford that, she's better off that most of us.

KELLIE'S LIE #6: "I don't have much of a love life."

VFTW has received tips from many sources that lead us to believe that Kellie has indeed had a love life, one that she was allegedly not afraid to use and exploit. While we don't have any explicit details, we think we might know who does. The National Enquirer published an article on April 17, 2006 that talked about Kellie and her ex-boyfriend from high school. The article says that Chris Ussery (her ex-boyfriend) was still upset about the breakup. VFTW has received a tip that Chris models for a website called Guysdivine.com. Here is a picture of Chris from the preview on the site. Doesn't exactly seem innocent.

Conclusion

Well, folks, there you have it. You may not believe some of this, but almost all of it is well documented, and some of the information cannot be disputed. Kellie lied about her singing experience, she has been caught lying numerous times about other topics, and she definitely poured it on thick for the viewers. Not even Kelly Bundy was this dense.

All of this leads us to one conclusion: Kellie Pickler's true self sort of came out on the show, and the more she keeps it up in real life, the funnier this might get. Idol deserved this fake girl since they continued to pimp her made up stories even after obviously doing background checks on her. Oh Kellie, did you think we wouldn't find out? Maybe she doesn't deserve half the credit we're giving her after all.