When we first met Katharine McPhee back in 2006 — the year the Sherman Oaks, Calif., native was voted runner-up on “American Idol” — the young singer, then 22 years old, was the picture of a wholesome good girl: frumpy jacket and jeans, sweet smile, hometown honey by her side and performing golden oldies such as “Someone To Watch Over Me” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
What a difference a decade makes.
As Page Six reported earlier this month, McPhee and her producer pal Hilary Shor found themselves in hot water when they publicly bashed a bride who kicked them out of her wedding. After being asked to leave the reception — to which they were not invited, nor did they know the bride or groom — in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Shor and McPhee posted a handful of videos with titles like “dead bride #rude bride” and “loser bride bouncer” to the producer’s Instagram account. In the clips, McPhee can be heard snickering off-camera and saying, “What bride does her own wedding security? If you’re doing your own security, you have a problem.”
It’s just the latest in a string of stories that have shocked McPhee’s early fans — including an affair with a co-worker that led to the bust-up of her marriage and rumors that her latest romance might just be for publicity.
“It’s 10 years later,” a close friend of McPhee said of her transformation. “She still is that girl next door in many ways but she does have that edge, and she likes to show off her sexy side.” (Exhibit A: her skin-baring December cover of Health magazine.)
Added another insider, who knew McPhee during her “Idol” days, “She has always been seen as a bit of a goody-goody, but she is incredibly ambitious. She’s always wanted to be really, really famous.”
She’s definitely getting attention — paparazzi follow her around LA, trying to get shots of McPhee, 33, with her new boyfriend, 68-year-old music producer David Foster — but her most recent claim to fame is perhaps not the starring role she had in mind.
While one pal said the singer “is the farthest thing from a mean girl,” others says the attitude she showed on social media comes as no surprise.
“After ‘Idol,’ when she got pretty big, Kat just stopped talking to virtually her entire group of friends,” a source told The Post.
“A whole group went from being best friends with Kat to her not even speaking to them. She stopped responding to texts, calls, everything. Her former best friends are basically strangers to her now.”
The source added that some of those old pals were even bridesmaids at McPhee’s 2008 wedding to her then-manager Nick Cokas, who is 19 years her senior.
“Katharine really loved Nick,” said the source, adding that, before McPhee ditched her former crew, “her friends were close with him as well. They all hung out together, all the time.”
But the close friend, who talks to McPhee regularly, sees it differently. “Kat became better after ‘Idol.’ People grow, people grow out of people, and you lose commonality . . . Anyone who is not [in] her life anymore is not there for a good reason.”
That extends beyond old pals — Cokas is also out of the picture now.
In the fall of 2013, McPhee was photographed kissing Michael Morris, a director of the NBC show “Smash,” on which she starred at the time. McPhee maintains that she and Cokas were separated, but Cokas has said the affair ultimately led to the end of their marriage. McPhee filed for divorce in 2014 and the two officially divorced in February 2016.
(Meanwhile, Morris’ wife, actress Mary McCormack, reportedly kicked him out of the house after seeing the smooch photos, but the two repaired their relationship and are still married.)
McPhee then dated Elyes Gabel, her co-star on their current CBS drama “Scorpion,” for two years before they split in July 2016.
But the romance that really grabbed the tabloids’ attention was with Foster — already a gossip-column staple for his marriage to and divorce from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Yolanda Hadid Foster, a k a the mother of models Gigi and Bella Hadid.
Foster and McPhee have known each other for years, friends say; in fact, he worked with her on “Idol” as a one-week guest mentor and later produced her first single. McPhee also performed as part of a PBS tribute to the producer in 2008.
‘Katharine wants to sell out MSG. She wants to be as big as Taylor Swift.’
The couple were first spotted together in May at Nobu in Malibu, Calif., where they reportedly enjoyed a “PDA-filled dinner.”
“We’re very close friends, and we’ve been friends for a long time,” she told Health. “I’m really, really fond of him, and I think he’s an incredible person. I’ve known him since I was 21 years old, you know? He produced my first single. So he’s been really good to me. People can say whatever they want.”
And people did say whatever they wanted. After the Nobu session, the duo were spotted together at an LA Lakers game and Craig’s restaurant in West Hollywood — two places they were certain to be photographed together. Rumors swirled that the relationship was all for publicity.
But McPhee’s pal told The Post the singer is not with Foster for the press: “She’s been unlucky in love in the past but she doesn’t do anything for publicity. She is a very private person.”
Two of the producer’s daughters, Erin, 35, and Sara, 36, have gushed about their dad’s latest love interest: “We are really happy if our dad is happy,” Sara told E! News. “We love Katharine McPhee. We love our dad. We want our dad to be happy. We don’t care who he dates . . . don’t really care how old they are.”
According to the “Idol” insider, her interest in Foster, who has produced hit songs for artists such as Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, is more driven by ambition than anything else. “The career Katharine wants is very much in line with what David does. He is a legend in the business and he’s famous for making the type of music she sings,” the insider explained.
(McPhee’s rep Leslie Sloane told The Post, “I truly feel lucky and am proud to work with Katharine. She’s . . . one of the most generous and loyal people I know.”)
Performing is in McPhee’s blood: Her mother is a vocal coach and her father a TV producer. The singer also majored in musical theater while studying at the Boston Conservatory.
In November, McPhee released her fifth studio album, “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” a covers collection of jazzy lounge standards, and celebrated with a series of sold-out shows at Café Carlyle.
Her TV career is holding steady as well. Although her run on “Smash” was short-lived (the series was canceled after two seasons), “Scorpion” is now in its fourth season. After a seven-year big-screen lull, she also has two films due in 2018.
Still, those who know her say McPhee believed her career would be further along by now. Added the “Idol” insider: “Katharine wants to sell out MSG. She wants to be as big as Taylor Swift.”
The performer herself echoed that very sentiment in a recent interview with Ocean Drive magazine, confessing, “I thought I would be a pop star, like Mariah Carey . . . I never thought in a small way. I always dreamed really big.”
McPhee’s close friend insisted the star’s ambition doesn’t blind her. “You’re in this business to make it,” said the friend. “Kat works really hard. She wants to succeed at what she puts her mind to. Just listen to her music. Her voice is unbelievable. People want to make albums with her.”
But if she really wants to hit it big, insiders say, Foster may not be her ticket. “Twenty years ago, if you wanted to be the next Whitney Houston, then David Foster was your guy,” explained the “Idol” insider. “But he hasn’t had a hit since 1982.”