Well, it wasn't quite as scandalous as R.E.M.'s Peter Buck drunkenly pelting a British Airways attendant with a yogurt carton or the Rolling Stones having their mile-high-club escapades captured on camera for the long-censored rockumentary Cocksucker Blues. But Clay Aiken--arguably one the nicest, squeaky-cleanest contestants in American Idol history, whose greatest faux pas up until now has been daring to sully Kelly Ripa's face with his allegedly unsanitized hand--still managed to stir up a small amount of trouble on a Continental Airlines flight this weekend.
Apparently Clay had the gall to prop his Aiken feet up on a female passenger's armrest, causing the irate woman to give him "a minor shove," according to FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson.
Who knows why the FBI had to get involved in this case when they could be...oh, I dunno, seeking out terrorists, or at least making sure no passengers pack toiletry bottles larger than 3 ounces in their carry-ons. At this rate, you know it's only a matter of time before Rosie O'Donnell gets involved too, just like she did with that Kelly Ripa incident a few months back.
But further intervention might not be necessary. "The flight crew was able to resolve the situation," Agent Johnson has assured us concerned citizens, so we can all breathe a little easier knowing our skies are safe from Idol-administered personal-space-invasion threats once more. Phew!
You know, Clay must have some sort of foot fetish. When he visited the Yahoo! Music studios last year (check out his performance -- and his scintillating interview, conducted by ME! -- right here), the very first words he flamboyantly uttered upon meeting me were: "LOOK at those BOOTS!" For some bizarre reason, I was wearing a pair of loudly acid-purple, copiously fringed hescher boots purchased at a cheesy moccasin souvenir shop in Vegas, the type of moon boots you could totally imagine Cherie Currie rocking in the early-'80s juvie delinquent movie Foxes. And Clay expressed a surprising amount of appreciation for my fringy, foxy footwear.
It really makes me wonder what type of shoes Clay himself was wearing when he shoved his own light-loafered feet in that (decidedly less appreciative) female passenger's direction...