Astro "punished" for wearing Dr. Dre's Beats headphones on The X Factor?

Astro is turning out to truly be the best contestant on The X Factor this year. Not only has he been able to deliver with his original rap lyrics week after week -- he his now a lightning rod for controversy.

So he apologized for his tantrum last week but not after saying that there may be something fishy about him being in the Bottom 2. The NY Post has an additional angle: Astro was "punished" by the show for defying producers for wearing Dr. Dre's Beats headphones -- as the show has a sponsorship agreement with Sony. Wow.

From reality blurred:

Being in the bottom two last week “was X Factor’s way of punishing me,” he told the New York Post. “I don’t see how you can have the most followers on Twitter out of everybody in the competition and get voted in the bottom two. So, I thought something was jiggy.” While he says his mother is on his side—“She knew what was going on. She was tellin’ me, ‘Just leave. You need to leave and go home’”—he said he’ll perform this week and if he’s in the bottom, “I’ll handle it differently, because I’ll know people actually voted me in the bottom two.”

More interesting, however, is the paper’s report that there was behind-the-scenes drama to fuel Astro’s conspiracy theory, which he mentioned vaguely post-results show in a tweet. Citing anonymous sources, the Post says “Astro defied producers and insisted on wearing a pair of Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones — even though the show has a sponsorship agreement with Sony.”