In the meantime, a story comes through via Courtney Love's publicist that the show has approached his client about possibly replacing Paula Abdul as a judge. Yeah, that makes sense. Paula Abdul is acting unstable so we're bringing in Courtney Love. Not only does the widow Cobain have a better-documented history of substance abuse, she's also one of the few well-known singing celebrities who sings worse than Paula Abdul.
A couple days later, Nigel Lythgoe denied the story and Courtney Love's publicist apparently admitted that it might have been a hoax. Talk about CIA disinformation campaigns. They managed to damage both Paula and Courtney's reputation with one story, get the show even more publicity, and seemingly endorse Paula all at once. Of course, whenever sports team owners say they back their coach or manager one hundred percent, we all know what happens next.
Last year, rumor had it that Paula was going to be replaced by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. The year before that it was Corey Clark's claim that Paula had dresesd him for private judging sessions. Wasn't this the plot of the movie Network? The crazier Peter Finch behaved, the more the ratings jumped.
At some point, you just know they're going to interrupt one of the Wednesday night results shows to stage a full-on intervention with Paula. Maybe they could have the doctor from House lead the intervention for the ultimate tie-in.
I've personally avoided the TV interview footage where Paula had to tell the press "I’ve never been drunk in my life." I rather like following tabloid stories, but if Paula's actually sick in some way, even if self-induced, I find watching it in youtubed glory too ghoulish.
If she really has some condition that's either medical or self-medicated, the producers need to step forward and handle it in a humane fashion by giving her a leave of absence, making sure she gets treatment. Otherwise, we're in full-on Circus Maximus mode. I don't find watching someone self-destruct entertaining unless it's Rush Limbaugh, who I understand was putting together a boy band in the Dominican a few months ago.
By the way, did Olivia Newton John say anything interesting the other night? "Let's get critical, critical." Do I remember any pieces of Jewel's commentary from the first week? I could argue that Paula seems like Roger Ebert compared to those two guest judges.
It did strike me that auditioning for judges might be far more fun than more hours of auditioning singers. Should they replace Paula (come to think of it why not trade her to Dancing with the Stars?), most people think it needs to be another woman.
Article comments
1 - Kaonashi
The best guest judge I've seen on the show was Gene Simmons. He didn't sugarcoat his answers like many of the female guest judges do. He was actually as strict -but not purposefully mean- as Simon in his remarks, and was often spot on.
2 - chancelucky
I'd forgotten that Gene Simmons was actually pretty good in his judge stint. I think the worst I recall were Ashford and Simpson.
For whatever reason, the judges seem to be the key to the show. I have no idea why the chemistry between the curent 3 seems to work, but I don't think any of the other "competition" reality shows have managed to turn their judges into a major part of the mix.