American Idol Visits Ailing Contender

Days before David Cook was crowned the new "Idol" champ, the ex-bartender cleared his schedule for an important outing -- to visit Top 24 'Idol' contestant Luke Menard in a Los Angeles hospital, reports People magazine. Menard, 29, was recently diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. David's brother, Adam, has been fighting brain cancer for 10 years, and the experience has given David strength to support Menard during this battle. "Cancer is a very big part of my existence," said Cook, "I'm excited to be put in the spotlight where I can hopefully do something to help other people. I love Luke and I just wanted to show up and make sure that he understood that I love him and know if there's anything I can do for him and his wife -- sign me up, you know?" Cook added, "Luke, Michael Johns, Jason Yeager and I -- we kind of buddied-up one day at Hollywood week. We called ourselves the Four Horsemen -- any time one of your own is going through something as horrible as that, it makes everything ... (link)