Pop Idol reject 'wasn't drunk'

A contestant who was rejected on Pop Idol says producers tried to make her and her sister look like "boozed-up teenage tearaways".

Nathalie Mogg and her sister Anne-Marie were seen drinking Cointreau before their audition.

But Nathalie said the pair are teetotal and used the Cointreau simply to gargle with prior to their appearance.

Viewers saw Pop Idol judge Neil Fox put Nathalie over his shoulder and carry her out because she wouldn't stop singing. Her sister was removed from the audition by a bouncer.

Nathalie said: "As a singer you are supposed to gargle with port before a performance to open the vocal chords. We didn't have any port so we took a bottle of Cointreau. We gargled and swallowed it a couple of times, but that was it."

The pair, from Dartford, Kent, said their parents were shocked when they saw the show, says the Daily Express.

Neil Fox called Nathalie's performance "panto-ish". She's won a place on a drama and theatre course at Kent College after passing three A-levels.