The ex-"Idol" finalists ranged from the better-known, such as Bo Bice, Fantasia (still with the bizarre red hair), Sanjaya Malakar, Justin Guarini, Constantine Maroulis and Jon Peter Lewis to the likes of Melinda Doolittle, LaKisha Jones, Jasmine Trias, LaToya London, A.J. Gill and Chris Sligh.

Everybody wanted to talk about their upcoming projects. Everybody insisted that big success was just around the corner.

Ace Young went so far as to carry a copy of his soon-to-be- released CD, holding it up and getting it in as many pictures as he possibly could.

"Everybody keeps asking me what I'm doing," Young said. "So, I wanted to show them that this is what I'm doing."

At least people are still asking.

It's not like this is the inevitable fate of a finalist who finishes second. Clay Aiken, for one, is too big to have time for an "Idol" finale.

"You don't have to win to have a big career," said Maroulis, who finished sixth in Season 4.

Even though the track record of the second-place finishers has been, well, spotty at best?

"That was then. This is about now," Maroulis said. "And these guys are both so talented that they're doing to do great."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com