As you may know we have been following the American Idol contestant contract situation. I received this quote from the 19 office in the UK today, one week after my story on the contract appeared in Salon:

"American Idol is a competition, entered in order to win a significant prize, which includes a recording, merchandising and management agreement. The 10 finalists were given contracts to sign which were negotiated by an expert music lawyer on their behalf, the terms of which are confidential but extremely favorable to the finalists."

If by confidential we mean all over the Internet, then I guess it is, but "extremely favorable to the finalists" seems a stretch by any measurement.

The two-hour Idols in Vegas special airs tonight on Fox.