Diana DeGarmo
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A Melbournce cyber stalker who harassed and blackmailed an American Idol star walked from court yesterday.

Tanya Maree Quattrocchi, 21, of Oak Park, was released on a community-based order and ordered to serve 150 hours of community service after she was convicted of stalking and blackmail.

The County Court heard Quattrocchi was obsessed with pop singer Diana DeGarmo, 19, and hounded her with unwanted phone calls and text messages before stealing her identity.

Quattrocchi phoned DeGarmo 369 times and sent her 570 text messages between March and June last year, the court heard.

One text message read: "I could kill you before you could even lay a finger on me. "I know I'm out of line here, but I don't give a f..k. How badly do you want to kill me right now? Bring it on bitch."

Judge Lisa Hannan said Quattrocchi had spiralled out of control and only stopped harassing DeGarmo when she was caught by police.

"It must have been quite terrifying for the victim," Judge Hannan said. "Her life was invaded by you and her rightful sense of security stolen from her."

Prosecutor George Slim told the court Quattrocchi hacked into DeGarmo's MySpace page and pretended to be her in emails she sent to the singer's family and friends.

She also used DeGarmo's credit card to subscribe to pornographic websites.

Shortly before her arrest last June, Quattrocchi demanded $18,000 from DeGarmo and threatened to release the singer's newly recorded songs if she didn't get the money.

The court heard Quattrocchi had a limited intellectual ability and had scored an ENTER score of just 16 when she graduated from Ave Maria College in Aberfeldie.

Defense counsel Kellie Blair said Quattrocchi, who was studying website administration last year, was shy and spent most of her time on the computer. The court heard she came from a loving and supportive family and there was nothing to explain why she had tormented DeGarmo.

Ms Blair said Quattrocchi, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was remorseful for the anguish she had caused DeGarmo.

The American Idol singer, from Atlanta, was the 2004 runner-up to Fantasia Barrino and is performing in a musical called Hairspray.

DeGarmo and her mother, Brenda, submitted victim impact statements to the court. The court heard DeGarmo alerted the FBI to Quattrocchi's harassment in June 2006.

In sentencing Quattrocchi, Judge Hannan acknowledged her poor intellectual and social skills, and said she had good prospects for rehabilitation.

The good people at, well, People magazine have put together the following updates for us on past American Idol favorites:

DIANA DEGARMO
American Idol Appearance: Season 3 (2004)
How She Did: 2nd place
Diana DeGarmo has kept busy recording an album and starring in the Broadway musical Hairspray. Her latest big accomplishment? Dropping three dress sizes to a size 4!

"The first time I put on size 26 waist jeans, I was jumping around the store," says DeGarmo, 19, who's lost the weight by changing her diet (staples include fish and brown rice) and working out four times a week.

JON PETER LEWIS
American Idol Appearance: Season 3 (2004)
How He Did: 8th place
He's the guy Simon Cowell said looked like "a pen salesman," but Lewis, 27, didn't go on to sell office supplies. In fact, the singer released his debut album, Stories from Hollywood, in 2006. Next up: a club tour. And so what if the venues aren't exactly stadiums?

"It doesn't matter if I'm not huge," he says. "I can support myself and do what I love. That's the American dream, isn't it?"

SCOTT SAVOL
American Idol Appearance: Season 4 (2005)
How He Did: 5th place
The best thing that's happened to him since Idol?

"I got married over the summer, so I'm enjoying married life," says Savol, 30, the father of Brandon, 5, from a previous relationship. Now settled in Nashville with wife Rochelle, a childhood friend, Savol spends his days concentrating on writing pop songs and recording an album. "American Idol has opened so many doors for me," he says.

As new American Idol contestants - such as Sundance Head, Chris Sligh and Brandon Rogers - try to make a name for themselves, past singers from the show will grace your TV screen in the near future.

On Friday, February 9, past finalists Kevin Covais (pictured), Melissa McGhee, Diana DeGarmo, Ryan Starr, LaToya London, and Frenchie Davis (the disgraced, disqualified finalist) will be guests on The Dr. Keith Ablow Show.

According to a blurb on the official American Idol site, the finalists will "reveal the inside scoop about the hit reality show and share their opinions about Simon Cowell and the great success of fellow Idol Jennifer Hudson."

Nothing new here. Just a retrospective look by People at the runners-up in American Idol's brief history. These five singing standouts may have come in second, but they're still Idols to millions. Well, sometimes.

Here's the magazine's photo feature of the fabulous five who dazzled us on American Idol and (almost) went all the way.

KATHARINE MCPHEE / American Idol Season 5 Runner-Up
After opening up about her struggle with bulimia, Katharine McPhee became a role model not just for her voice (which Simon Cowell called the "best of the competition" in 2006), but for her courage. The 22-year-old, who has found love with actor Nick Cokas, will release her self-titled debut album on January 30. "I am just the person who didn't want to settle for not having everything I dreamed of," she says.

BO BICE / American Idol Season 4 Runner-Up
Bo Bice, who lost the 2005 title to country sweetheart Carrie Underwood, has been enjoying his family life with wife, Caroline Fisher, and 15-month-old son, Aiden. The rocker is also working on a follow-up to his 2005 chart-topping debut, The Real Thing. "They allow me to go out and pretend I'm a rock star for three-quarters of the year, and when I get home, they ground me," said the candid, often self-deprecating Bo Bice.

DIANA DEGARMO / American Idol Season 3 Runner-Up
Second to Fantasia Barrino in 2004, DeGarmo released her debut album (Blue Skies) at only 17 years of age. She's found greater footing, however, in the field of musical theater. "It's led me ... where I want to be, a singer for the people," she told the Dallas Morning News in July. Diana DeGarmo won raves last year as Penny Pingleton in Broadway's "Hairspray," and is back with the show after doing a summer tour with Brooklyn: "The Musical."

CLAY AIKEN / American Idol Season 2 Runner-Up
Yes, we are forced to do a double-take every time we're reminded he didn't win. Ask the "Claymates" - his legion of fans - and they'll tell you the same. The 28-year-old North Carolinan, who recently released his third album, A Thousand Different Ways, is known for his sharp wit and big heart. And oh, that voice. But there's something else Clay Aiken would like to accomplish: starting a family. "I want to be a father so badly," he told People in September.

JUSTIN GUARINI / American Idol Season 1 Runner-Up
He once described his post-American Idol career path as a "free fall," but despite his setbacks, Justin Guarini (who lost to Kelly Clarkson in the show's 2002 first season) hasn't given up. He's currently at work on a follow-up to his recently released jazz album, Stranger Things Have Happened, and is filming a comedy, Fast Girl. "To be able to go around the country and keep making music, the one overriding emotion I have is gratitude," he said.

We've been following the story of a woman who was arrested and charged with stalking former American Idol finalist, Diana DeGarmo.

In an exclusive, we've received a letter from a friend of the criminal, Tanya Maree Quattrocchi. Here it is:

To Diana DeGarmo,

My name is Tanya Mamo and i writing to you in relation to the current charges you have on an old high school friend of mine Tanya Quattrocchi.

I understand that Tanya has been threatening you and causing you distress and i am sorry for that, but please don't go ahead with these charges.

As a close friend of Tanya for many years I know what she is like in terms of invading others privacy, but i assure you that she is harmless and only does it for attention. You see I'm pretty much Tanya's only friend, not a close one but never the less the only one that keeps in contact with her.

I know that this does not excuse what she has put you through but surly you can understand that your not the first person that she has ever done this too, and excuses me for being rude but just because your now classified as a celebrity now doesn't give you the right to make a big deal over having your email hacked into or getting nasty phone calls.

So please find it in your heart to go easy on her, she's not perfect but are any of us? She's made a mistake, a stupid one but still it was a mistake, but she has learnt her lesson believe me. I wish that it didn't have to come to this for her to learn her lesson, but perhaps it was the only way to get through to her.

Rest assure that she hasn't asked me to write this letter, i actually saw an article about in the local paper as i didn't realise that it was this serious.

This letter, bear in mind, does not reflect the opinion of American Idol Worship in any way. We believe those who break the law should receive a punishment for their actions.

But we respect the rights of others to make their voices heard and encourage readers to weigh in on this and other issues. Thank you.

According to Diana DeGarmo, runner-up in the 2004 American Idol, the Melbourne woman that stalked her was "trying to ruin my life ... [with] sadistic cruely."

Posing as a fan, the woman blackmailed and stalked DeGarmo.

In a statement to Victorian detectives witnessed by an FBI agent, DeGarmo said Tanya Maree Quattrocchi unleashed a "text message war," while also placing hundreds of phone calls and attacks on her email accounts earlier this year.

DeGarmo said she felt trapped by Quattrocchi who "terrorized me for almost five months of my life that I can never get back." The criminal pled guilty yesterday to a charge of blackmail and stalking.

The troubling events began when DeGarmo accepted Quattrocchi, who posed as a teenage girl from Minnesota, into her MySpace account in February. After replying to a series of questions about American Idol and her singing, DeGarmo was continually pursued by this supposed fan, as she asked for personal information before posing as the singer and tricking the site's server into supplying her password.

According to a police summary, between March and June, Quattrocchi rang DeGarmo 369 times and text-messaged her 570 times.

In April, Quattrocchi emailed the singer's producer pretending to be her and was given two of her unreleased songs she later threatened to release publicly if DeGarmo did not meet her online.

"No matter how many times I changed my passwords or tried to keep my information safe, she would always break back in," the American Idol finalist said of her stalker.
After Quattrocchi was arrested on June 30, she told police she knew DeGarmo wanted her to leave her alone, but did not believe she was a stalker. She said she never planned to release the songs; it was a ploy so DeGarmo would contact her.

Diana DeGarmo, the talented singer who went from American Idol runner-up to Broadway, claims she's been the victim of an Internet stalker who stole her identity and blackmailed her.

The American Idol star, currently starring in "Hairspray" on Broadway, says the stalker first contacted her through DeGarmo's page on MySpace.

Appearing Tuesday night on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, DeGarmo said that a young Australian woman bombarded her with email and instant messages. The stalker then somehow got a hold of DeGarmo's cell phone number and called her up to 60 times a day.

The singer says the woman assumed her identity and used it on the Internet to solict sex and drugs. DeGarmo, who finished second to Fantasia Barrino on the third season of American Idol, told O'Reilly the woman then called her and asked for money to leave her alone.

The Broadway star tracked the stalker to Australia and reported her to police there. After an extensive search spearheaded by the FBI and the Australian Federal Police, Tanya Ouattrocchi was nabbed and is due to face a laundry list of charges in Melbourne Magistrates Court on December 11.

Assuming the guise of a 14-year-old "big fan" from Minnesota, Ouattrocchi was initially pleasant and complimentary when she first contacted DeGarmo via her MySpace page. But the communication reportedly deteriorated into stalker-like rants when Ouattrocchi began emailing her explicit material and "outrageous questions" about her sex life.

It's no secret that America's most popular show has spawned its share of successes... and those who have faded from the limelight pretty quickly.

A number of contestants, however, have surfaced on Broadway in recent months. How are our American Idol favorites doing? EW takes a look:

CONSTANTINE MAROULIS
SHOW: The Wedding Singer
GRADE: B+

Despite having won over millions from the beginning, Constantine Maroulis did not enter The Wedding Singer with much optimism from theater insiders.

But in this bizarre college-theater production masquerading as a big-ticket Broadway show, Constantine stood out as one of the top three things on stage. (He comes in right behind the woman playing Robbie's psycho ex-girlfriend Linda and the plane on a stick that appears in Act 2.)

Turns out everyone's favorite Greek rocker spent a summer as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theater Festival, and actually has a degree in musical theater from the Boston Conservatory of Music. A degree!

So it shouldn't be surprised to discover that, in his role as Robbie's bass player and best friend Sammy, Maroulis exhibits terrific comedic timing, not-terribly-awkward dance skills, and a New Jersey accent that's both convincing and consistent.

Audience members might be surprised, however, at how rarely Maroulis is the center of the show -- Sammy's sidekick status has not been elevated to compensate for the Idol vet's relative fame, and he's got but one big number, "Single," a boys'-night-out anthem in which he must concede spotlight space to chorus members.

Maroulis may have lost out to Carrie Underwood on American Idol, but the kid is a natural Broadway baby and he looks like he's having fun... imagine what he could do when not forced to sport a mullet.

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Note to those that get kicked off American Idol 6 in a few months: Don't worry. Broadway may be in your future.

Past contestants that couldn't quite pull a Kelly Clarkson or Taylor Hicks have proven as much.

For example, Constantine Maroulis is in the Broadway production of "The Wedding Singer," while Diana DeGarmo (pictured) has just rejoined "Hairspray." Josh Strickland stars in "Tarzan" and Frenchie Davis is in "Rent."

Maroulis said he welcomes the challenge and is just trying to keep up right now with the hectic schedule.

Meanwhile, DeGarmo said she has American Idol fans coming to see her, while "Hairspray" fans who never saw her on TV become familiar with her talents. She also likes having a regular paycheck and the time to hit the studio to record her own music.

Casting agent Bernard Telsey says he requires his staff to watch the FOX sensation.

"We basically root for the losers," he said. "That means we can put them in a Broadway show."

For a 19-year-old, Diana DeGarmo has come a long way.

The second place finisher on the third season of American Idol, who lost by less than 1 percent to Fantasia Barrino, toured for much of 2005 to support her debut album, Blue Skies.

In November of last year, DeGarmo appeared as Maria in the American Musical Theatre of San Jose production of "West Side Story." On February 7, 2006, she made her Broadway debut as Penny Pingleton in the musical "Hairspray" at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City, drawing rave reviews.

Now she returns to the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose as the title character in "Brooklyn," a musical, urban fairytale, which runs August 9-13 and also stars Tony winners Melba Moore and Cleavant Derricks.

Not bad for a theatre newbie!

The San Jose Mercury News caught up with the songstress and, using entirely questions from Diana's fans, sought the skinny on everything going on in her life. Is there life after Simon? Does she ever have revenge fantasies about Fantasia? When will she return to the recording studio? And what's with the NASCAR obsession? Here is the real deal with DD:

Q: Hey Diana, I think you are an amazing singer and performer. I have a couple of questions for you: What was your favorite part in "Brooklyn The Musical" and why? Are you going to do a tour for your second album? If you are will you be coming to AZ?

-- Serenah

A: My favorite part of Brooklyn The Musical is when I get to sing "Streetsinger" with Cleavant Derricks. We have so much fun on that song. I would like to do a tour with my second album, but I don't know when or where we are going. We will keep you updated, though!

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