No wonder he's always smilin'

Well, first off, Sangay confirms that he ain' teh ghey. I ain't buyin' it.

As one of American Idol's most polarizing figures, fans either love or hate Sanjaya Malakar – but he says he's always been popular with women.

"I've always gotten along with girls better because I was raised by women," Malakar tells PEOPLE in its new issue.

Malakar, whose parents divorced when he was 3, says his ease with women comes from being close to his mom and his sister, Shyamali, who were his biggest influence growing up in Seattle. But getting along with girls didn't always work to his benefit.

"I got teased in school because people figured I must be gay because I understand women," the phenomenally popular American Idol castoff says. "I think that's why guys didn't like me – because I got along with girls so well. When I went up to girls they would give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek like I was their gay friend. But I was the straight guy that understood them."

As for his dating past, Malakar, who is now 17, says: "I had a girlfriend but she became clingy, and I didn't want to get into a really serious relationship because I was 16. Before his arrival on the hit FOX show, "I just wanted to date and have fun," he says. [People]

And if that wasn't catty enough, here's some juicy gossip... It appears that Sangay's mom was arrested for GROWING POT a couple of years ago. Looks like his step-father and sister were all involved!

Sanjy's mom, Jillian Blith, used to be a pot-growing potentate -- and that his sister Shyamali was no stranger to the art of toking herself.

The Momjaya was pinched by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department in February 2005 in Pierce County, Wash. after they found 310 marijuana plants -- and the Sis-jaya keeping watch with a bag of weed and "smoking devices" -- in the Malakar family garage, as the National Enquirer first smoked out today.

But -- buzzkill -- Shyamali, who was arrested for possession, directed the cops to another green-growing facility nearby, where they arrested Blith and her husband, Charles Quist (Sanjaya's stepdad). Quist's mugshot, obtained by TMZ, bears a striking resemblance to Gary Sinise, a very blitzed Gary Sinise. (We're told there's a mugshot of Shyamali, but it can't be made public because she was only 17 at the time of the bust.)

Blith could've gone to jail for up to five years after pleading guilty to one felony count of unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance, but got off with a relatively mellow 30-day sentence. [TMZ]