His “friends” expose Sanjaya as a subversive

If his fauxhawk version of “You Really Got Me” showed that young Sanjaya Malakar has got American Idol in the palm of his hand, last night’s revelatory performance of “Besame Mucho” revealed much more.

And it wasn’t the fact that his controversial hairstyling has crept down to cover his upper lip and chin (sort of). It was the group in the audience identified as “Sanjaya’s friends.” High-fiving, possibly high and sharing a seat with Sanjaya’s demure Hooter’s waitress sister Shyamali, were two of reality television’s most anarchic figures.

Something’s up at Idol. And it’s got nothing to do with Howard Stern.

See his spectacular performance… and watch the crowd… after the jump…

While Sanjaya sang, there was Tom Lowe, the controversial openly-gay adult British American Idol contestant, with “BJ” Averell, one of the Hippies who won the ninth Amazing Race, acting as if they were under the influence of something other than Sanjaya.

Lowe caused a mini-stir this season after he showed up at the Seattle auditions (where Sanjaya and his sister went through) and was soon outed as a former member of a boyband that had been under contract to Simon Cowell’s label. Lowe was featured in an extended segment that was shown only in the UK Idol feed, leading to speculation that he was a ringer inserted into the mix to boost ratings there. As the scandal began to spread, he vanished mysteriously once the show moved to Hollywood.

And BJ, who’s done some strange male bonding of his own– well… now that they’ve adopted Sanjaya, or vice versa… something’s in the air…

–Tabloid Baby