Kelly Clarkson says it "stinks" that she didn't make it to Toronto.

The 21-year-old American Idol winner, who is promoting her debut album, Thankful, was supposed to conclude a three-day trip to Toronto today. Instead, she bailed last week after the World Health Organization put Toronto on their restricted travel list.

"I'm not only looking out for myself, I've got people travelling with me with families and stuff," Clarkson told The Toronto Sun yesterday on the phone from Los Angeles, just as the WHO was rescinding its travel advisory. "You don't want to make anything difficult for the families.

"The thing that stinks is that I have Canadian fans and they want to see me and talk to me and that," says Clarkson. "This was just postponed. I'll be there sometime soon."

A native of Texas, Clarkson had family members visit Toronto last year.

"Everybody was telling me how beautiful it was and everything. I was really pumped, but, the thing is, when the World Health Organization gets involved ... "

SARS may have been the only thing to derail this girl's schedule. In the last two weeks, she's made stops on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, The View and Craig Kilborn. She was supposed to do Open Mike With Mike Bullard as well as MuchMusic in T.O.

"It's very cool that everyone's been so supportive," says Clarkson, who claims never to get nervous despite being thrust into the spotlight.

"I just have fun whatever it is."

That goes for shooting her first movie, From Justin To Kelly, now scheduled to open June 13, just in time for kids to get out of school to see it. The family-style musical took just six weeks to shoot. "It's cool to say I did a movie at 20," she says.

Co-star Justin Guarini, the American Idol runner-up with the wacky blond 'fro, was a doll on the set. "We did a pool scene and he had to keep jumping in and out of the water, take after take. His hair looked like a wet mop."

As for those tabloid rumours, she and Justin are just good friends, she says. "We enjoy each other's company and stuff like that. We're really busy."

Like everybody else, she's picking Ruben to win the second American Idol, which concludes May 21. Clarkson, who has already appeared on the new version twice, expects to be invited back for the finale to crown the new winner.

Clarkson is wary of the supermarket tabloids and stays as far as she can away from the bar scene and any possible scandals. That, and the days away from friends and family, are the hard parts about fame.

She did, however, manage to get with her gang last week on April 24 -- her 21st birthday.

Charting the No. 1 album in North America was a pretty good present, but Clarkson also managed to flee to a lake where she got in a little jet skiing. "My friends, we were all poor before this. A little bit of money makes us creative. They took me on this big scavenger hunt of my past."

Hey Kelly, you should try the jet skiing in Ontario this summer.