At age 19, singer and actress Antonella Barba was a contestant on the top-rated television show in the country American Idol; now, she is 32 and facing ten years in prison. She has been convicted of possession and distribution of fentanyl. Barba pleaded guilty of the charges against her back in August 2019. This week her sentence is expected; however, the court has recorded new documents that placed the blame of her fall on the TV show American Idol.
Barba appeared on American Idol back in 2007 after she was voted off the show; she continue down the path of it acting and singing career; however, she did not make enough to cover her finances. The new documents being introduced to the court puts the fault of Barba’s criminal behavior on American Idol; apparently, the TV show had a damaging effect on the singer’s life, which steered her on a downhill path which led her to commit crimes that she plead guilty too. The documents describe Barba as somebody who had the proper characteristics of an ambitious noble individual. The documents have been attained and published by the media state that before American Idol Antonella Barba was a “resilient, deeply religious, selfless, and driven person…someone who could rightfully be called a perfectionist.” However, those qualities changed because American Idol stained her, according to Barba’s mother.
Barba’s mother claims the TV show robbed her daughter from those virtues and ruined her life because apparently, the experience on American Idol brought a harmful alteration to Barba’s existence by confusing and encouraging the young Barba to follow a wrong path. Shortly after Barba was voted off of American Idol, she moved to Hollywood; however, it ended up being a catastrophe for her because she could not attain the type of success she was searching for and working towards, and it became shattering for her. Barba was only 19 years old at the time of her appearance on the hit tv show; her upbringing took place in New Jersey in a Christian home, and she was naive about Hollywood’s standards and the price that is paid to become a star. Barba had been caught in scandalous pictures that hurt her reputation; the photos were taken of her in Washington D.C at a World War Two Memorial, where she was participating in a wet t-shirt contest. Even after she was caught in the photos, she still tried to make a name for herself by acting in small roles and even had several music albums. Although Barba and her mother both blame a reality show for her downfall into criminal behavior, it still did not stop Barba from appearing on another reality tv series, which was Fear Factor back in 2012 season. Barba never hit the celebrity status she was searching for, and the celebrity profile had diminished some. She kept her career going for a little while, but she still struggled for more income contributing to the path she took that led her to face up to a decade in prison.
