Jordin Sparks is ‘a normal, quirky 17-year-old’

updated 4:57 p.m. ET May 25, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Attention, Brad Pitt: “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks has a crush on you.

“He’s just really cute,” Sparks, 17, said Friday, hastening to note that she doesn’t know the actor. Pitt is currently involved with an older woman, Angelina Jolie.

Two days after besting beatboxer Blake Lewis in the TV talent contest, Sparks took part in a teleconference in which she was grilled about everything from her favorite star to what she thought her earning power would be.

“I don’t know. I’m just looking forward to doing the best that I can do,” the teenage diplomat replied.

Sparks, the youngest “Idol” in the Fox show’s six seasons, is making the rounds of TV shows in Los Angeles and New York before she returns home to Glendale, Ariz., later next week for a break.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” she said, sounding hoarse but still as upbeat as the average teenager. Which is what she is, Sparks said.

“I’m just a normal, quirky 17-year-old,” she said. Her biggest moments before “American Idol” were getting rid of her braces and gaining her driver’s license.

‘Hollywood needs to get over it’
How will she stay grounded, resisting entertainment industry pressures that can include an extreme emphasis on weight?

“Oh, that super-thin stuff — Hollywood needs to get over it,” she said lightly.

Asked what she’ll sing on the “American Idol” concert tour with other finalists, she wasn’t ready with an answer. But she probably won’t focus too much on Lewis’ specialty of beatbox sound-effects.

Video: 'Idol' finale American I-Dull is over May 24: And yes, the finale was a dud. Keith Olbermann talks with "Countdown's" "American Idol" princess, radio talk show host Maria Milito. The anti-climactic 'Idol' finale Jordin Sparks carries the day on 'Idol' America's newest ‘Idol’ Lewis and Sparks duel on 'American Idol'

“He’s tried to teach me but I’m really horrible at it,” Sparks said.

In a separate teleconference Friday, Lewis, 25, of Bothell, Wash., was asked if he thought the contest might be permanently more hip because of him.

“I can only hope that it keeps the contemporary edge,” he said, including when it comes to the recording artists brought in to advise contestants.

This season, golden oldies singer Barry Gibb and Peter Noone were among those playing “Idol” mentor.

When it came to his choice of songs, Lewis said he stayed true to the music he’s been making for years, with influences including ’80s dance tunes and hip-hop. He deliberately picked one song, Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” to show he was more than a beatboxer.

He was using “my ‘strategery,’ as George Bush would say,” Lewis said, becoming perhaps the first “Idol” contestant to crack a politically aware joke.

He admires candor, Lewis said a few moments later, responding to a question about the on-air support he got from “The View” hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. (O’Donnell left the show Friday after a dustup with Hasselbeck.)

“I love Rosie O’Donnell. She just says whatever she wants,” he said, adding that’s his style as well. “I’m pretty honest and blunt and sometimes a little tactless.”

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