Contributor: Carrie Blackshaw 

Remember when Simon Cowell dissed Mandisa’s badunkadunk during Season 5’s American Idol auditions? (He said they’d need “a bigger stage.”)

Well, check out homegirl now! Right before dropping her new album, she reveals a new body and she looks amazing 75 pounds later. 
The Grammy-nominated gospel singer’s weight battle was borne of early trauma – she was told People magazine that she was sexually molested as a child and raped at 16. “A lot of girls turn to men to fill that void and some turn to drugs,” Mandisa, 32, said. “I turned to food as my drug of choice.”

She set a goal to drop 100 pounds after feeling winded at a trip to Mt. Rushmore last summer.

“I thought I couldn’t get up and sing about freedom when I had been chained for so long,” she says.

How’d she do it? Cardio workouts five days a week, a diet heavy on salads, lean meats and fiber, and counseling to work on her childhood issues.

“Being able to fit into clothes I couldn’t before is great,” she says. “To be able to walk into a room and not feel self-conscious, I don’t ever remember feeling this way.”

Another day, another former “American Idol” contestant is in the news.

Paris Bennett gave birth to a daughter named Egypt and the new mother is reportedly doing well.

The 5-pound, 15-ounce baby (tiny like her mama) was born on Monday after Paris spent five hours in labor.

Congrats to Paris and Egypt!

Wedding bells were in the air for former “American Idol” contestant LaKisha Jones on Sunday.

Jones tied the knot with financial adviser Larry Davis at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Financial adviser, eh?

I don’t know if that’s a plus or a minus in today’s economy, but more power to you, LaKisha.

Former “AI” contestants Sanjaya Malakar, Haley Scarnato and Melinda Doolittle were in attendance.

By far, one of the more talented singers of Season 6, Jones has a new album due out in Feb. 2009.

While one ex-American Idol contestant was getting married this weekend, another was announcing her pregnancy.

Paris Bennett, the Season 5 contestant and granddaughter of R&B singer Ann Nesby, is reportedly pregnant and engaged to get married to a unidentified gentleman.

Why the hush on the baby daddy, “Princess Pregnancy?”

Her mother, Jamecia, is a little too excited about her 19-year-old baby getting knocked up:

“I’m proud of how she did it. I was 16 when I got pregnant.” 

Proud of how she did it? When did 19 become the new 30?

Second-season American Idol champ Ruben Studdard, 29, apparently is altar bound.

People.com reports that he and fiancée Surata Zuri McCants, 30, obtained a marriage license Monday in Alabama.

The two arrived at the Shelby County Probate Office in Birmingham just before noon, filled out the paperwork and walked away with their license, an eyewitness said. “They looked really happy,” the eyewitness was quoted as saying on the website.

Well, duh.

What kind of sign would that be if either of them looked sad?

No word yet on a wedding date but Alabama marriage licenses are valid for 30 days.

Wonder if rotund Ruben will serenade Surata during the ceremony.

While some ballers, including Robert Horry, Willie McGinest and Warren Moon, got their party on at hot and sweaty Prive nightclub (can’t they afford better air conditioning???) inside Planet Hollywood Resort Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Randy Jackson celebrated his 52nd birthday down the Strip at Tao in the Venetian with glamour girls Rosario Dawson and Dancing With the Stars dancer Karina Smirnoff.

It was kind of sad to see Jackson’s birthday party advertised on billboards around Sin City.

The American Idol judge may look good for his age but once you hit fiddy you’re too old to publicly promote your birthday party at a nightclub.

Don’t act like you don’t watch “American Idol.” You know you do! Well, we do, and it’s with sadness that we report that America voted off the hottest sister of the season last night. Syesha Mercado had the looks and the voice, but lacked the syrupy sweetness of David Archuleta and the unique, rocker edgeyness of David Cook, both who will battle it out next week. Ah, Syesha will be fine. Look at her.