Paula Abdul is in a real pickle. You know it when her Beverly Hills publicist, Karynne Tencer, doesn’t return repeated phone calls from Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times’s lead TV industry writer. Perhaps The New York Times doesn’t hold much water on the left coast?
Clearly, the weeks of speculation over ABC-TV’s “Primetime” expose would have given Ms. Abdul and her handlers ample time to come clean or at least get her story straight. I remember first reading about Ms. Abdul’s indiscretions on Jeannette Walls’ always entertaining gossip column on msnbc.com.
The Steinberg piece is especially entertaining. He cleverly pulls quotes of fans posting to Fox’s offical “American Idol” message boards, as well as to Corey Clark’s own slick site. The best quote from the piece comes from Mr. Clark himself during an interview to promote the ABC Primetime special: “…the only thing the “Idol” machine has been doing has been maliciously attacking my name.” Huh? What name?! Without “Idol,” Mr. Clarke’s career would be stuck in idol.
I also wonder whether all these revelations are designed (by Fox and the show’s producers) to boost ratings. Whatever the case, this scandal pales in comparison to “Quiz Show.” The reason: Corey Clarke is no John Turturro!