The nation's biggest tornado of backroom whispers and unsubstantiated rumors since Watergate continues to engulf Hollywood, as the search to fill the seats of outgoing 'American Idol' judges Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres has taken a new twist.

Despite reports just two days ago that rumored replacement Jennifer Lopez had talked herself out of the job due to excessive contract demands, don't count her out just yet. Today's rumors insist that yesterday's rumors were nonsense. The source of the last info, as told to Entertainment Weekly? The amazingly versatile and tremendously active unnamed 'American Idol' "insider."

"Don't believe everything you read," Hollywood's busiest anonymous source cautioned. "[The Lopez rumors] may simply be a case of one diva's rep slinging mud to make another potential candidate look like a diva. There are a million agendas swirling out there, and a lot of camps aren't above using rumor and speculation to advance their causes."

The source went on to insist that nobody in the running, not even J-Lo, had been trying to bigfoot Fox over the judge's chair. "This is an extremely high-profile gig, and you'd better believe no one -- male or female -- has been unreasonable at the negotiating table."

So who could be the beneficiary of those rumors if Lopez should, in fact, drop out of the running? According to TMZ, none other than Shania Twain has emerged as Fox's backup plan. In a notably succinct article, TMZ stated that "We're told Shania is Plan B." And the choice would make some sense; Twain has served as an 'American Idol' guest mentor and judge in the past and certainly has the ability as well as the credibility to pull off the gig if she is approached.

And as if that wasn't enough, TV Guide has weighed in with another set of possible judges, this time from none other than former 'American idol' runner-up David Archuleta, who revealed that his choices for the judging panel would include Madonna and Elton John. His third pick? Well, we were expecting Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler or Liza Minnelli, but actually, it turns out Archuleta wants to keep Randy Jackson on board "for old time sake."

So does Archuleta have some kind of inside information on the judging negotiations? Probably not, but then again, we're not sure anybody else does either; TMZ didn't even bother trying to name a source for its statement. That's okay, though, because we think we have a pretty good idea where they're getting their information from, which gives us the perfect idea: why not just give the unnamed 'American Idol' insider a judge's chair?

After all, if these rumors are any indication, nobody knows Hollywood or the music industry better.