Fame costs - and right here is where you start paying

...and if you could make the cheques payable to S. Fuller. Yes, the latest extension to the Pop/American Idol brand is heavy on the exploitation: American Idol camp.

For just $2090, 700 "lucky" children can be pushed by their showbiz parents into a "non-competitive" (yeah, right) boot camp for aspiring Clay Aiken and Will Youngs. By which we mean wannabe singers, of course. Organisers of the camp stress that nobody is going to be sent home in tears:

"As in American Idol, the goal for our kids is to soar beyond their expectations," Fremantle executive VP Keith Hindle said. (Or at least soar beyond a first-round embarrassment next time Idol comes to their hometown.)

"However; because Idol Camp is not a competition, every kid goes home a winner," Hindle added.

The real winners, of course, are Freemantle and 19 Entertainment, pocketing a million and a half bucks in return for providing a couple of karaoke CDs and some sheds to sleep in.

By the end of the summer, kids will be pleading to be let to go to Kamp Krusty.