'Idol' chatter dominates Playboy bash

More and more, it seems, the pasts of young reality star hopefuls are threatening their shots at stardom. American Idol contestant Antonella Barba, 20, has become the latest to don the scarlet letter as photos of her with her top dropped have led to speculation that the Fox network may drop her.

Hugh Hefner, who knows a thing or two about nudity in photos, calls such condemnation "hypocritical and dumb."

At a party Tuesday night at his Playboy Mansion to celebrate the third-season premiere of his E! reality show, The Girls Next Door (Sunday, 10 p.m. ET/PT), Hefner said, "I think in America we have a very strange attitude toward sexuality and nudity, and it makes no real sense."

Hefner, 80, spoke these words while seated on a sofa next to his famous grotto, the site of many an infamous sexcapade. At his side were girlfriends Holly Madison, 27, Bridget Marquardt, 33, and Kendra Wilkinson, 21, all roped of from the riffraff and protected by security.

Hef was soon joined by Ryan Seacrest, producer of E!'s newest reality series, Paradise City, which makes its debut right after Hef's show and focuses on singles trying to make it in Las Vegas. The Idol host, along with show judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, were among the very few men allowed into Hefner's inner sanctum.

Cowell believes photos showing nudity should not be grounds for dismissal. "These people haven't done anything illegal; that's their private life," he stressed. He believes that the racy photos of Barba should "not affect her standing on the show, and if the public wants to keep her in, they'll keep her in." (Barba performs with the remaining female singers on Wednesday's show; two men and two women will be eliminated Thursday.)

"Nobody's clean in the entertainment business," seconded Jackson, recalling Frenchie Davis, who was famously booted from Idol in Season 2 when it was revealed that she had worked for an adult website. "There are definitely some moral things that go on with this show."

It is the morals of the person who leaked the Barba photos that Seacrest finds most repugnant. "It's just tacky, disgusting," said Seacrest. "You've got a girl who's trying to make it on a show where she needs a vote, and someone's trying to tear that away from her."

Though he said he had not yet seen the photos, Seacrest added that he would "absolutely let (Barba) stay on. If American Idol is a true representation of American youth, we're going to find imperfections. And it's OK to be imperfect."