'Idol' loser found fame in failure

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A botched "American Idol" audition has turned William Hung into an anti-celebrity with Web sites, fan club and a Top 10 radio hit in his honor.

Hung, who was rudely dismissed by the "American Idol" judges during his Chinese-inflected performance of "She Bang" by Ricky Martin, is the latest in a surprising by-product of reality shows, the anti-celebrity, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Ken Warwick, the executive producer of "American Idol," who coined the phrase, said the making of anti-celebrities is becoming frequent.

"Bless him, William will be inundated with offers," Warwick said.

Indeed, three Web sites about Hung went up in the days following the Jan. 27 airing of his audition, with one generating 4 million hits in four days, causing a temporary shut down of the site. Chicago's WKSC-FM has played a remix of Hung's performance that has made it into the station's Top 10 request list.

The attention has bewildered the 21-year-old University of California at Berkeley civil engineering major.

"There is fame and there is infamy," said Hung, who moved to California from China when he was 11. "I don't know if this is bad or good."