Remember Tarisai Vushe, the 2007 Australian Idol contestant who started out sounding like the new Whitney Houston, then said "thank you" an awful lot, and ended up going completely bananas?

Well, she's baaaaack!

Tarisai has returned to the news after announcing that she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend - but, er, it's okay, you don't have to call the police. Or something.

Vushe said she was returning DVDs at 11pm on Friday when she was grabbed.

"He grabbed me from behind and kept asking me why I left him, in a really obsessive way," she said.

"He left me in the car. I got out and walked to a service station (near Penrith) and called a taxi," she said.

Her manager, Alex Haddad, who co-ordinates Vushe's new band Method, insisted he believed her account of the ordeal.

"I've encouraged her to go to the police, but I can't make her," he said.

"When she didn't turn up for rehearsal last week, we rang her family and they mentioned she might be doing a gig interstate. But Tarisai didn't want them to tell us anything."

Hmm, we're torn. If she IS serious, then for god's sake, go to the police, girlfrien'! Too many cases of assault against women go unreported these days.

However, if she's telling fibs a la "Marcia Hates me", well, a thousand aspersions on "Method" and may all their gigs be on Wednesday nights at RSLs.

Which is probably pretty close to the reality they'll enjoy, anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you're missing your weekly dose of fiery Idol contestant Tarisai Vushe, then go and add her as a Facebook friend immediately and bask in the warmth of your new interweb relationship with the shouty little minx.



We fucking love that she specifies Assemblies Of God as her particular branch of Christianity - take that, Idol marketing department!

She is available for friendship by clicking here. And she wants to meet you folk, honest to goodness!


THAT'S SO RAVEN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

It is nice to know that in this era of Facebook privacy freak outs - Multinationals/Mysterious Government Bodies/God is tracking my online frolicking, oh noes! - that celebrities of every variety, A to Z list, are still prepared to participate in a bit of virtual mateship on social networking sites. Hell, even Sarah Murdoch has a (closed) Facebook profile, which sort of warms our heart a bit in a weird way. Awwwww... pokes.

Ha! We're kinda loving the fact that Tarisai Vushe appears intent on tearing anyone she's ever met a new one post-Idol booting. First her explosion at Mark Holden which was broadcast on Monday night's show (we've got to admit, she's right about him talking complete fucking shit most of the time, and every time he says "That's what I wanted to see!" during the fight, we want to smack him about the chops), then she's whining about the viewers who called her fake.

And now? She's taken aim at Natalie "Just call me Holly Hunter because I'm all about The Piano, motherfucker" Gauci (she's rude and horrible - Gauci, that is), and let fly on the topic of her sister-girlfriend Marcia Hines.

There's no faking it - Tarasai Vushe is one angry woman, turning her vitriol on Australian Idol judge Marcia Hines yesterday after being booted from the show.

Still simmering from the backstage brawl with Mark Holden - which she claims cost her spot on the show - Vushe explosively told Confidential it was Hines who was "fake" and the latest judge to betray her.

After being challenged by Holden and Dicko for not showing real emotion in her public performances, the 20-year-old said Hines' silence during the live spat on Sunday only added to her tears.

"But she came to talk to me after the show, before the fight with Mark," Vushe explained.

"She comforted me and said, 'I don't think you are faking it, but I kept quiet because I didn't want to enter the argument.

"I believed her when she said that, then I heard she went on radio yesterday (Monday) and said to Dicko, 'I agree with you that she's fake.'

"So who's being fake now?"

The Zimbabwean-born singer said she had relied on Hines for motherly support during the series, but now felt "betrayed".

"She lied to me. She told me to go and talk to Dicko and Holden.

"It was probably just a set up."

 

 

EVEN THE JESUS WON'T BE ABLE TO SAVE YOUR REPUTATION NOW, TARISAI!

She's all yours, Hillsong. Put those pipes to good use.

 

The latest Australian Idol casualty is pocket rocket Tarisai Vushe, who admittedly showed less "rocket" and far less "(in the) pocket" with each week of the reality talent quest.

What started as a powerhouse voice with a beguiling personality ended up a karaoke-night warbler with the personality of a donut - her trademark quiet "thank you" apparently the killer for all involved, including the normally ever-lovin' Marcia - a predicament that led to Mark and Dicko calling her "fake", only to feel a bit of emotional power from Vushe, even if it was off-stage.

Unfortunately for her, the emotional outburst didn't happen during her cover of The Veronicas' When It All Falls Apart, and so she leaves in fifth place.

Incidentally, we remain perplexed as to exactly who is voting for Marty Simpson; could this year's finale be another repeat of the Damien Leith/Kate De Araugo variety?

Next two through to Final 12: Tarisai Vushe, Lana Krost

Mixed emotions upon last night's announcement of the third and fourth contestants through to Idol's Final 12. When we saw Tarisai sing, we were overcome with joy and promised to eat our television if that voice was not rewarded with a place in the finals. Fortunately, she got through; unfortunately, we are still hungry.

This is also good news because, as Dicko suggested when he called her "barking mad", Tarisai is also totally crazy/amazing, as evidenced by this quote from her Idol contestant questionnaire:

Watching Whitney Houston on television letting that voice out made me cry to God about how I wanted to become a precious woman and start singing professionally, leading to a long career.

We are looking forward to this precious woman's tearing her weaker-voiced Idol peers a new arsehole, hopefully all the way to the Opera House.

However, we also had a strong premonition on Monday night that 17-year-old Lana Krost would become this year's Lauren Buckley/Amali Ward/Natalie Zahra/Lisa Mitchell and be the "young chick who the young chicks vote through" (although, to clarify, we love Amali and Lisa), and last night, our fears were confirmed as the girl with a voice about as exciting as a Milk Arrowroot dipped in milky Tetley's was voted through to the Final 12.

After four series of Australian Idol, we still have some naïve hope that only the truly talented contestants will make it through, and we still get disappointed year after year. This year it's a case of one-out-of-four-is-bad so far, and we're still crossing those fingers for the wildcard round.

ED: I am mildly concerned by this Tarisai love fest, Bastow. She thanked Jesus for her performance of Straight Lines, for fucks sake! That said, she is obviously completely batshit crazy, and therefore I support her inclusion in the Top Twelve, if only because of the potential for psychotic episodes/breakdowns/hilariously over-the-top one liners.