‘The X Factor’ USA: LeAnn Rimes keeps Carly Rose Sonenclar in the spotlight

Even though we are not just mere hours away from finding out whether or not Carly Rose Sonenclar was declared the winner of “The X Factor” USA season 2, much of the talk is still not really about her at all; instead, all anyone seems to be particularly interested in talking about is some of the drama that unfolded between her and LeAnn Rimes during their duet on Wednesday night’s show. By “drama,” we mostly are just talking about the fact that the two seemed out of it, under-rehearsed, and the country singer may have either hurt the 13-year old singer, or gotten her so many sympathy votes that she ended up winning the competition.

The only thing more confusing than LeAnn’s actual actions during the show at this very moment are Rimes’ own response to it. First, there was a quote that came out in TMZ (supposedly from the singer’s rep) saying that she did not perform as well as usual because she was with “a 13-year old girl who was having trouble with the song.” Is it possibly that she was going through some nerves after being on stage with a superstar? Sure, but Carly has not said anything about that.

In addition to that, Rimes has also issued a new statement now on Twitter saying that she never said the quote mentioned above, and that she really does have nothing but positive things to say about Carly Rose as a singer:

“It’s a shame that gossip and lies are overshadowing the performance of Carly … It was an amazing opportunity to share this experience with Carly and I know I’ll be watching for her to win tonight.”

What do you buy more at the moment: the original quote from LeAnn’s “rep,” or her new comment on Twitter? And, do you think that this performance could cost her in the competition? If you want to see our current prediction for the finale, you can do so here.

Photo: Fox