The Vast American Idol Conspiracy

In my continuing effort to report to you on all things Paula Abdul, there is a new story from the AP and other news services out today. The report highlights the conversation between Drunk Chick and Barbara Walters on Walters' Sirius radio show that Walters relayed on The View.

(Seriously, who knew that Barbara Walters had a radio show on Sirius? Isn't The View and all her TV specials keeping her busy enough? Didn't she leave 20/20 because she wanted to slow down?)

In the interview Paula again blamed Simon Cowell for her goofy behavior on the show, claiming that all of Captain Jack's talking during Paula's critiques were distracting and causing her to laugh at inappropriate times and, in her words, "He claims to be that... what he is creating is great television and I said 'Well what you've created is doubt in my character. You created defamation in my character and you've lied'... I've lost a lot of money, I've lost endorsements, and all Simon had to do is retract what he said, but he didn't." Any ideas as to what she is talking about here? Retract what exactly? Is Simon feeding the drunk-like comments into Paula's head just to make her look bad?

Then the interview turned to Paula Goodspeed, the woman who had been stalking Abdul for years until she was found dead from an apparent suicide in a car near Paula's home last month. Paula claimed that she had asked the Idol producers not to allow Goodspeed to audition in Season 5 but that the producers ignored her pleas because of the "entertainment value" of having Goodspeed on camera in the same room as Abdul. "It's fun for them to cause me stress," Abdul said, referring to the producers. "This was something that would make good television." Paula also accused Fox of making her home address public, though I for one have never seen it. In effect, she accused Fox, the producers of American Idol, and Simon Cowell of ruining her career and putting her in danger.

When Walters asked Abdul why despite all of this she was staying on American Idol, Paula replied that she is staying because "I'm under contract."

Funny, none of this seemed to bother Paula when she signed her last Idol contract in 2006, just a few months after the audition incident with Goodspeed and after many years of Cowell babbling in her ear. But now, with her contract up after next season and with a new jewelry line to promote (no joke, here's the link), Drunk Chick comes out with accusations that everyone associated with the show except for Randy, Ryan, and William Hung is putting her life in danger and deliberately making her look like, well, a drunk chick.

I think my suspicions as to why the Idol producers brought in Kara DioGuardi to be an Idol judge are proving to be true. I had predicted back in August that this move would put Abdul on notice and now it appears that we're seeing the effects of this pressure on Paula, and if you follow the show at all you know how badly she reacts to pressure. Please Paula, please don't fall apart on us here. We need you on American Idol. We need you to keep you sanity, if not for the show then for yourself. Just ignore Captain Jack like Randy and the rest of us do and you'll be fine.

I do have to agree with Paula's complaint about the stalker though. What in the world were the producers thinking when they decided it would be a good idea to allow a known stalker to audition?

These comments should make this season very interesting.