With a blow-dryer in one hand and pomade in the other, Constantine Maroulis was trying to fix his voluminous hair, which was in a mass of curls after being pinned up underneath a brown mullet wig for his Friday-night performance of The Wedding Singer on Broadway. The room had two mirrors, two stools, a refrigerator, a sink, two bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne, a six-inch stack of unanswered fan mail, a food gift basket with Greek flags sticking out of it (one of Maroulis's many nicknames is Greek Boy), and about a dozen empty vases that had been filled with roses and flowers. The costume rack for Maroulis, best known to Broadway audiences and most Americans as the fifth runner-up in the fourth season of American Idol, was stuffed with '80s outfits, including one sparkly white glove and a red jacket reminiscent of Michael Jackson in "Thriller." The names on the rack didn't identify the clothes as belonging to Maroulis; instead the label read "Matthew Saldivar," an actor who has left the show to make room for Maroulis.

God, it's amazing: detail, color, pathos. You feel like you're there; you can almost smell the spanakopita. You can't teach profile-writing like this.

Oh, wait. Maybe you can.

This Is Constantine Maroulis. He Wishes You Knew That. [VV]

Earlier: Heady New Times at the 'Village Voice'