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Fans of Katharine McPhee may be surprised to learn that her debut album is sassy, sexy and promiscuous. And all that is conveyed just on the cover.

“It’s definitely suggestive and a much sexier image than I have had in the past,” McPhee told andPOP last week about her Flashdance-inspired album cover.

“It catches your eye and that’s what I like about it, and you can’t really say it’s a slutty picture because it’s just suggestive. There’s no skin showing. It’s still, ‘I’m sexy, I may not be that innocent,’ but I’m also not showing you everything.”

And if you think McPhee will show you everything, she reminds her fans that her promiscuity ends on the album cover.

“You definitely won’t see me on stage suddenly wearing thigh-high boots and a little dress,” she laughs.

On Tuesday, McPhee will find out if that sexy cover translates into album sales when her self-titled debut hits stores, though she won’t need to keep pushing the boundaries to earn fans. She already has plenty.

McPhee caused a “McPheever” when she appeared on last season’s “American Idol” and wound up finishing as the runner-up.

Because she’s entering the music game as a known rookie, she didn’t have to introduce her life through her lyrics.

“Not this record,” she said from Sherman Oaks, California, where she was getting ready to move to her new home in The Valley. “I came off a reality show so people knew enough about my life.”

Instead, the writing process started in September, immediately after her “Idol” commitments ended, when some of the top lyricists gathered with McPhee in Virginia Beach, at the home of producer Nate “Danja” Hills.

She was more concerned with how the album was going to sound and she had a hard time explaining this to producers that she had never met.

“These new people were suddenly a part of my life,” she said. “Suddenly, you don’t know everybody and you’re told you’re going to work with everybody for the next three months, it’s kind of scary in the beginning. I knew the kind of direction but it took everybody some time to understand that and get on board.”

The result is a “rhythmic pop” record with production work from Josh Alexander and Billy Steinberg – who also wrote her first single, “Over It” – Babyface and the team of Walter Afanasieff and Emanuel Kiriakou.

McPhee will be making the rounds next week and in early February (Larry King, Leno, Kimmel, etc.). But perhaps a more significant appearance for McPhee – who revealed, after “American Idol” concluded, that she had been battling bulimia for seven years – is her gracing the cover of this month’s Shape magazine

“It means a lot, especially coming from where I came from,” she said. “It means even more to be representing a healthy body and that I’m able to say I’m healthy and do it the right way.”

Through her MySpace page, the 22-year-old hears from many young girls seeking advice about going through eating disorders.

“Once you decide to be a spokesperson or role model about something like this, people will naturally come to you for help. There’s not much I can do other than just give my advice of where to get help.”

McPhee can also be seen on the Feb. 1 episode of “Ugly Betty.” There’s been a rumour floating around for months that McPhee is being considered for the role of “Wonder Woman” in the upcoming big-screen version.

“Anything,” she says, “is possible.”

Listen to Katharine McPhee’s first single off the album, “Over It.”
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Read a “behind the scenes” report on this interview in the andPOP Blog

American Idol second-place finisher Katharine McPhee has broken her foot, only days after joining the Idols Live tour following a bout with bronchitis and laryngitis.

E! Online reports that McPhee tripped and fractured her foot backstage in North Carolina before performing. However, she managed to belt out her two solo performances in slippers.

Her rep says that McPhee plans to soldier on with the tour, despite being “in discomfort.” There is still about a month and a half of dates left on the trek, which wraps up September 24 in Pennsylvania.

McPhee missed the tour’s first three weeks as a result of the dual illness, for which doctors ordered her to be as silent as possible.

“People speculated that I was making a movie, and that I was better than American Idol,” said the 22-year-old when she co-hosted The View late last month. “People thought the bulimia was the reason I was set back, but it’s just not true. I just got sick and I was overworked.”

American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee was forced to miss out on the first few nights of the American Idols Live! tour due to “severe bronchitis and laryngitis,” according to promoters.

E! Online reports that McPhee pulled out of the opening concert in Manchester, New Hampshire just hours before showtime.

“I am disappointed and I am sorry to disappoint my fans who will be attending the start of the American Idols Live tour,” McPhee wrote in a statement (she’s under doctor’s orders not to speak).

It was uncertain whether or not McPhee would rejoin the tour in time for last night’s show in Massachusetts.

McPhee finished in second place — behind Taylor Hicks — on the latest season of the hit television talent competition.

Katharine McPhee, the runner-up on the latest season of “American Idol,” has come out as a recovering bulimic.

The singer reveals her struggle with the eating disorder in the new issues of People and Teen People magazines, set to hit newsstands Friday and June 30 respectively.

McPhee says she first became aware of her body image at age 13, when she started to notice physical changes. After being a “stick” for her entire life, McPhee developed “womanly curves.” It made her begin exercising compulsively and starving herself.

“I got more and more obsessed with trying to lose weight and looking like other 14- and 15-year-olds,” she told Teen People. “I think it has to do with growing up in L.A. where more people are body-conscious.”

McPhee first forced herself to throw up at 17. Though she told her mother and tried going through therapy, McPhee relapsed. The problem worsened when she got to college, with dorm-mates that encouraged the behaviour.

Her manager didn’t help either, telling her, “Just lose 10 to 15 pounds, and we’ll start booking stuff,” she said.

When she started on “Idol,” the 22-year-old was throwing up seven times a day, and realized she needed help.

She entered a program at the Los Angeles Eating Disorder Center of California in October so she could start shooting “Idol” in December. After group and individual therapy for six days a week, McPhee has lost her fear of “bad” foods and says she hasn’t binged since two weeks before the therapy began.

“I was actually addressing the issue, not trying to lose weight,” says McPhee, though she still doesn’t consider herself completely healed. “I was letting my body do what it naturally wanted to do, by eating normally.”

“American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee has signed a record deal with “Idol”-creator Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings Limited and RCA, according to Billboard. The label is also home to Taylor Hicks, who took top spot on the fifth season of the hit Fox show.

The 22-year-old McPhee’s first single will include “My Destiny” and her take on “Over the Rainbow.” The release is due June 27, both in stores and online.

Last week, the California native’s cover of “Think” by Aretha Franklin was released on the “American Idol Season 5: Encores” compilation.

More than 63 million votes were reportedly cast in the May 24 season finale of “Idol.”