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"Certainly, under no circumstances was she ever ap proached to be talked out of tak ing part in [the show]," "Idol" exec utive producer Ken Warwick told The Post. "We knew she had a baby right from Day One, and she was always strongly tipped to win the competition because she was so good.
"I can absolutely refute that nothing was done, or even remotely suggested to her that she shouldn't take part in the competition," he said.
"It's a complete fabrication."
The Post reported on Friday that the biographical movie - called "Fan tasia: Life is Not a Fairy Tale" and set to air in mid-August - about her unlikely rise to the top of the pop music world in 2004, hints that the producers of the show subtly pres sured her to quit.
In the film's opening scene, a surprised Fantasia - who plays herself in the movie - is stopped coming off stage from the show's weekly telecast and told a producer wants to see her in her dressing room.
The "Idol" producer asks if she's read the Internet chatter about her - that she was an unwed teenage mother and a high-school dropout and that she was not a role model as the next Idol. The producer then suggests no one would blame the then-19-year-old if she decided to quit the show.
"It's absolutely and totally untrue," Warwick says. "I'm the executive producer, Nigel [Lythgoe] is the other executive producer and nobody - to my knowledge - would have said anything like that to her."
In the film, the executive is not identified other than by a first name, Ed. (No producer with that first name is listed in the show's credits.)
The scene serves as a set-up for the rest of the film - a flashback to her roughshod upbringing in small-town North Carolina and the road to the "Idol" finals.
The dressing-room conference comes back near the end of the movie - where again she is offered the option to get off the show. Of course, she turns it down and goes on to win the 2004 edition of the show.
Fantasia's representatives did not make her available for an interview over the weekend.
The movie is a big departure for Lifetime, which has specialized in making women-in-crisis films based on true stories - but has rarely dealt much with celebrity movies.
The film uses real footage from "Idol," including her original audition in Atlanta, clips of the "Idol" judges' ecstatic reaction to her and several appearances on the show.
Use of the original footage would have required the approval of the "Idol" producers - though it was not immediately known whether the show asked for or saw the movie script beforehand.
The film is based on Fantasia's inspirational autobiography of the same name, published last year.
The movie - filled with gospel music - is an unflinching look at Fantasia's tumultuous teen years, including her disastrous affairs with two young local men, her rape by a classmate and the birth of her daughter.http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/idols_false_note_entertainment_don_kaplan.htm
MONDAY JULY 31, 2006 08:15AM EST
By Stephen M. Silverman