'American Idol' Contestants Get Media Training at TMZ

5:58 PM PDT 4/6/2011 by Georg Szalai, Shirley Halperin

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The hopefuls get "advice" from TMZ co-founders and executive producers Harvey Levin and Jim Paratore for a segment airing Thursday.

The American Idol hopefuls will get some media training on Thursday's episode -- at TMZ's studio -- seemingly to prepare them for a possible life full of reporters, photographers and video cameras.

TMZ co-founders and executive producers Harvey Levin and Jim Paratore hinted as much during a New York appearance on Wednesday.

"Two days ago, all the Idol contestants came into the office," said Levin. For Thursday's episode, "they are doing this three-minute segment where we are giving these kids advice."

Paratore added that the focus of the visit was "media training." Levin said he had wanted to stay away from specifics, and the two didn't share further details.

A Fox rep confirmed that the media training segment will air Thursday.

Further details aren't known, but it seems like Idol is trying to give its aspiring stars a feel for what it is like to be in the spotlight 24/7.

The TMZ co-founders made their comments at the Ad Age Digital Conference in New York in a session about TMZ's success across different forms of media -- from online to TV and mobile. Brett Bouttier, general manager of TMZ, was on stage with them.