Reality Ravings

American Idol judge Paula Abdul has a new boyfriend, name unknown at this stage. He looks like a cross between uber chef Anthony Bourdin and George Harrison.

Apparently they went on a date to Beso her ex-boyfriend's restaurant. Is she trying to make him jealous.

Full story on Idolstalker.

In other reality TV romance news winner for cycle 3 of America's Next Top Model Eva Marcille is engaged to Lance Gross, an actor. Full story here.

Is Paula Abdul accusing American Idol producers putting her in harms way by allowing her now dead stalker Paula Goodspeed to audition for the show some sort of publicity stunt to get people to watch the new season of Idol? (Previous post on Paula flipping out here.)

With Idol ratings falling in 2008 this could be a strategy to get people interested in the soon to be starting eight season.

This allowed the former producer of Idol Nigel Lythgoe to then come out and defend the show generating more publicity.

Will this supposed conflict bring in the punters? If it doesn't American Idol producers have made other changes to the show.

Reality TV Mag writes about the changes. They include:

• A fourth judge - Kara DioGuardi a songwriter is now a judge, possibly increasing Paula's paranoia.
• Fewer audition weeks featuring “fewer bad singers and more ‘aspirational’ singers”;
• Instead of a Top 24, the show will feature a Top 36 which will eventually be narrowed down to 12.
• The Wild Card round will return while the charity-based Idol Gives Back isn’t on the schedule for this season.

Fox 8 will be screening American Idol fasttracked from the US from the 14 January 2009.

Anyway you make your own judgement on whether Paula has gone loopy or if it is a publicity stunt by looking at the You Tube clip above.

Paula Goodspeed who has been found dead outside the house of Paula Abdul, the American Idol judge's house auditioned for Idol in 2005.

She has been stalking Paula for a few years and at the audition below she reveals her fandom to Ryan Seacrest.

This video footage does raise the issue of whether American Idol has some responsibility in not making fun of people who clearly have mental issues. You decide.

Michael Johns Has Hit Sydney
Aussie American Idol contestant Michael Johns is now in Australia for a promotional trip for Idol. Not sure what he is going to do, but Fox 8 has brought him out.

He will probably hit the radio airwaves and TV talk shows.

Small SMH article here.

Hilarious article pointing out Paula Abdul's weird and unexplained moments.
MTV has an article here that outlines American Idol judge Paula Abdul's other unexplained faux pas on the show. It has been all over the world about last weeks slip up of judging the song before it has been sung. But MTV have dredged their memories to come up with some more.



Natalie Gauci Recording An Album
Sightings of last year's Australian Idol winner have been slim as she is in the studio recording an album. Apparently they are wanting to take it slowly to ensure it is a quality album. A strategy which worked for Damien Leith last year, as well as Leona Lewis.

Revlon say Alice Burdeau stood them up at an event because of partying too hard.
Revlon allege that last season's winner of Australia's Next Top Model Alice Burdeau stood them up for an event the night after the Logies. It was rumoured that she may have knocked back to much of the free champagne and was not in any shape to make it.

Her people deny it of course, and say Alice was never confirmed for the event. However apparently she was unable to speak at the MTV awards, this was reported on Vega. Maybe she is trying to emulate fashion icon Kate Moss too much. Or maybe she should just eat a few more canapes with her champagne.

An addendum to the above article in today's Daily Tele states an 'anon source' said she did look disorientated at the Logies. She apparently arrived 3 hours before the start of the ceremony and was a bit squiffy even before it started. A minder said she was back in her hotel by 1.00am.

Personally I thought it was obligatory to get smashed at the Logies as that was the only way to cope with the evening.

The American Idol forums are on fire after the Paula Abdul stuff up last night when she started commenting on songs that had yet to be sung.

If you missed it you can see her confusion here. It is hilarious.

The debate raging is whether the producers write her lines, or is she on the drink or drugs or both?? You decide.

Reggie from Big Brother's Pregnancy Scare.
I don't usually trade in Big Brother banter, however it is Reggie...

In this weeks Woman Day there is an article about her near death pregnancy. She had an ectopic pregnancy and was in severe pain and bleeding. She seemed to have to see a lot of Doctor's before someone actually gave her a definitive diagnosis, clearly the Queensland Health system still has some issues after Dr Patel!

Guy Sebastian Concert Review

Rodney Olsen's Blog has a very positive review of the Guy Sebastian gig in Perth. The backing band are apparently sensational. To think I refused free tickets to a show in Sydney. I was feeling particularly lethargic at the time.

Paula Abdul Could Not Speak For Two Years.

Now some people might think that is a good thing, however she was in an emergency plane landing and did severe spinal damage and one of the operations severed her vocal chords. Therefore could not speak for two years, and was out of the limelight for six years.

Paula fans probably already know all this and I had just thought it was a career slump.

Now Magazine has all the details. The other thing I did not know about Paula was she wrote Kylie Minogues come back song "Spinning Around".

I have to confess I have new found respect for her. Also is this why she is so loopy, the pain killers she might still be on?

Mariah Carey who you either love or hate is going to redefine the definition of sacrilegious by judging Beatles songs on American Idol this week.

In the producers fervour to give us another week of Beatles songs clearly they couldn't move Mariah guest judge appearance as it would have interfered with her new album promotion schedule.

At least it is not going to be the Mariah Carey song night - though that could have been amusing as only about 3 of the eleven would have been able to hit the notes.

Fox News for the full story.

More American Idol news:
Paula Abdul admits to a Freudian crush on Simon Cowell.
Paula Abdul subconsciously fancies Cowell - dubbed TV's Mr Nasty - even though she finds his sharp-tongued comments hard to take.

With these comments and her dreadful reality tv series Hey Paula there is not much more her credibility can take. Click here for the details

Simon Cowell Predicts Jason Castro to be in the final four
Simon on Oprah gave his predictions for who is going to win idol.

Simon: "Well, I think the front-runner right now is David Archuleta.(applause from audience). But don't rule out Brooke (White), David Cook and Jason Castro. Any one of these guys could win. I think it's going to get very, very interesting

At least he has stopped talking up Carly Smithson. Neighbours blog have details of his Oprah appearance.

Picture of Danny Noriega on a cruise ship with Rosie O'Donnell
For those wondering what Danny Noriega has been up to - here is a picture of him on a cruise ship with Rosie O'Donnell. Danny has been singing on the ship on the cruise Rosie organised.

Picture here. Nice to see they both got dressed up. NOT.

For those people who did not reader the spoiler alert on Friday to find out who had been eliminated from American Idol here it is.

The four who did not make the top twelve were:

• Kady Malloy - no surprise there.
• Luke Menard - thank god he went he was the worst performer left.
• Asis'h Epperson - a bit disappointing I thought she was stronger then the second last girl standing Kristy-Lee Cook.
• Danny Noriega - the competition will be duller without him, but apparently Rosie O'Donnell has offered him work already singing on a cruise where Cyndi Lauper will also be performing. Hopefully we will get to see more of him.

MTV have interviews with the eliminated four.

The final 12 are:

David Cook, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Brook White, Syesha Mercado, David Hernandez, Ramielle Malabuy, Carly Smithson, Amanda Overmeyer, Kristy Lee Cook, and Chikeze.

Entertainment tonight has interview with all the top 12.

On tonight's show Paula was still being wacky, but not as garbled as the girl's '80's nights. On that night her she became less lucid as the show went on, clearly the 'medication' was kicking in. At times it was more entertaining then the singing. Simon had to pull her down into her chair at one stage.

Tonight American Idol headed into corn country - Omaha Nebraska, but where was Paula Abdul?

Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell had to hold the fort until she turned up.

Paula was a no show as apparently her plane was late. But somehow I was not buying that excuse, as she appeared to be struggling the whole show. There was the hiccups the barely able to speak, and her sanity was in question when she said yes to the amusing but very terrible former female wrestler Sarah Whitaker aka Lady Morgue.

If Paula was wanting to put to rest the alcohol or pill rumours that do the rounds on the internet, this episode did not assist.

One of the first auditioners to be shown was Chris Bernheisal a 24 year old who could only be described as enthusiastic. He had presents for the judges, and photos of himself with Kelly Clarkson.

To keep the Kelly Clarkson theme going he then sang "Since You've Been Gone".

He said what he liked about Idol was about "It gave people a second chance at their dream". For him the second chance was not going to happen as his voice was very ordinary.

Chris however was not going to be deterred he then asked to audition as a red carpet interviewer for the American Idol final.

Not doing much better the judges smirked as they told him to contact the local Fox station and tell them that he is to report for them at the Idol final.

Chris was over the moon about this development, he did not seem to realise that Randy and Simon were snickering at him, but hell if he gets to do the red carpet who cares.

Jason Rich a 21 year old farmhand nearly blew his opportunity as he could not remember the words of his song. Obviously Simon and Randy were feeling benevolent by giving him a few chances and then a golden ticket to Hollywood.

Rachel Wilkes claim to fame prior to auditioning for American Idol is winning arm wrestling competitions. She did not look butch but she must be strong.

Ryan Seacrest had arm wrestling match (it was a draw), but Simon refused as he knew losing on camera would be bad for his image.

Her country voice got her through to Hollywood, however would be very surprised if she got further then that.

Samantha Sidley a pretty 22 year old obviously caught the judges in a bored patch. As she had to put up with Ryan coming into the judging panel, whilst Paula did the interviews outside. To be honest it did not add any value to the show. But it probably gave Randy and Simon a break from inhaling Paula's alcohol fumes! (only joking).

With all the shenanigans going on Samantha sang nicely with a husky voice and got herself a ticket to Hollywood.

The heart string story this week was Angelica Puente, who currently lives with her grandmother as she was not getting on with her father. Apparently he was really strict, probably didn't let her boyfriends stay over and smoke pot in her bedroom. But the whole vignette was about how much she loved him, and wanted to make him proud. Tears really flowed once her rendition of the "Power of Love" by Celine Dion got her through to Hollywood. I was surprised she got put through, but maybe it was poor pickings in Omaha.

Then rocker David Cook 24 who was inspired by former Idol success story Daughtry sang 'Living on a Prayer' by Bon Jovi. Simon said " a little worthy but good" and was given the green light to California.

Time for another comedic interlude with Johnny Escamilla who was correct when he described himself as weird. His gold glitter jacket was always going to be a hindrance in getting the judges to take him seriously.

His voice was not terrible, however he did a bizarre rendition of the Johnny O'Keefe classic "Shout".

Simon crucified him by saying he hated everything "the jacket, the singing, the dancing".

Last for the day was Leo Marlowe - as he said his mum said she raised a great homecoming queen it was just a pity it was not one of her daughters!

Could Leo be the first out gay person in the top 12 contestant? Well his voice was certainly showed that he could be, and as Leo said he was popular.

Simon reckons he is popular as well. Maybe he won't be anymore once his friends hear some of the comments Simon has been making during the auditions. Tonights clanger was when he said "Friends are never glad when you do well."

By the end of the day 19 people from Omaha were onto the next round in Hollywood.

Idolstalker has this great video of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul snogging Apparently this is from Season 2 of American Idol.

It is nauseating/hilarious particularly because of Paula's very poor acting skills. She actually looks like she was enjoying it. Yuck.

American Idol - Season 7 hit the Australian TV screens through Fox 8 apparently only five and half hours behind the screening in the US. I cannot figure out the time zone so I will just have to believe them.

Also with the time frame does this mean Australian's vote this year? Somehow I doubt it but with the technology these days it cannot be far off where there will be some international voting for some reality TV show.

After last years poor showing the American Idol series should be expected to rate highly this year because there are no other shows on TV due to the continuing writers strike in the US.

The Idol juggernaut went to seven cities, and over 100,000 people auditioned with the hope taking out the title or maybe just to get their face on TV.

Anyway first up was Philadelphia where the biggest crowd ever showed up. Isn't there anything better to do in this city maybe they need to build more skate board ramps or something.

The show started with Simon Cowell looking bored, Paula Abdul flashing her white bra through a sheer top (couldn't wardrobe afford a camisole?) , Randy continued to laugh at contestants he thought were bad, and Ryan Seacrest trying to look interested when he was interviewing the wannabe hopefuls.

Always on Idol the contestants have got to have a story - so first up contestant Joey Cattalone story was he had lost over 200lbs. Randy had sympathy for him as he also has had a huge weight loss though this season it looks like it has plateaued. With a ok singing voice he got the golden ticket through to Hollywood.

One of the things that does frustrate me with Idol is the Producers putting through to the judges auditionees with clear mental health issues. One of these contestants called Al was clearly nuts and there he was having Simon roll his eyes at him and Randy and Paula snickering.

Another person who was given this treatment was James Lewis a guy who sang in a low gravelly tone flat voice - who was bewildered to have Paula laughing at him. Is it really necessary to inflict national humiliation of a vulnerable person like this?

Website A Typical Girl also raises this issue./

I am not a wowser some of the bad auditions are hilarious but some are just sad.

American Idol this year were also showing the good singers that were getting through to Hollywood.

Melanie Nyema a back up singer, Jenot Joiner, and Johnathan Baines were examples of this.

Temptress Brown a black sixteen year old footballer was in Philly to audition for her sick mother. Her mother had come to the audition in a wheelchair. She was huge and her body was clearly the sign of her physical ailments. Why wasn't she hospitalised to lose weight? Or is that not paid for on the public health system in the US? If not it should be. She has clearly eaten herself to death.

Temptress had huge expectations and you really wanted her to be good, but she was hopeless singing a Jennifer Hudson number. Simon for once put her down gently - and then she started sobbing. Paula was hugging her and the judges walked her out of the room to meet the family.

Has Simon found a heart I thought? But was reassured later in the show that he hadn't when he said to Randy that American's are weird that when a friend gets good news they celebrate it.

Randy looked gobsmacked - especially when Simon continued by saying " I could not do it". Does he have any friends and if so don't bother ringing him to tell him you got a promotion, won the lottery, or are getting married as obviously he cannot give a rats. Also maybe it is why his girlfriend Teri Seymour always looks so miserable in photographs.

A weird Paul Materano came into do a love song for Paula Abdul - It was called the stalkers song it had lines in it like "If I were Columbo, I'd Peter Falk her." and other innuendos. I was surprised it did not have a line that said "If I were a pig, I'd pork her".

Anyway was this guy a creep or a set up? Well it has been revealed on Idolater that this guy does it for a living? So are the producers now paying people to perform at the audition shows. It made sense as Paula did not seem overly creeped out by it or maybe with all her botox and her face is having difficulty showing any expression.

Another contestant who I thought may have been a plant or just producers using a nutter was Alexis Cohen some sort of glitter dyke who lived with her mother in a bed sit. A fulltime student at 24 always screams mental health issues to me.

Simon thought she was a bit possessed and reminded him of Willem Dafoe in the Batman movie.

I thought the judges had put her down gently, but when she got out of the room she had a mega meltdown swearing and raving on, added to the fact that they had a shot of her living space I thought is this real or set up?

Then were the heart string stories of Angela Martin 26 with a daughter with Rhetts diesease who deservedly got the golden ticket.

Also there was Kirsty Lee Cook from Oregon who apparently had to sell one of her horses to get to Philly to audtion. But again the show did not reveal that she has previously had a contract with Arista Records. Popwatch Blog has more details

This was apparently the same for pure nanny Brooke White who has never seen a R rated movie - they did not mention she was in a band and has a full on my space page. I don't have a problem with professionals applying but don't portray them as amateurs and expect the google loving public to fall for it.

One person I did feel sorry for not getting the golden ticket was Christin Talisano - the Princess Leia fan who even dressed like her. I thought she was hilarious.

So come on American Idol a bit more transparency please.

With American Idol Season 7 to commence tomorrow night it is good to see the publicity machine at work.

The American Idol judges plus Ryan Seacrest on the USA Today website give their views on the best seasons of American Idol.

It is good to see Fantasia rates up highly there. She was phenomenal.

Last season predictably did not rate with any of them.

I predict a cracker year to compensate for the lameness of last season, which I stopped watching or did Channel ten pull it off air?

Simon Cowell has offered Britany Spears a helping hand during her current custody and many meltdown crisis's. More info on that good samaritan deed here.

However maybe he needs to offer that same assistance to his fellow American Idol judge Paula Abdul who recently had a mega meltdown at LA airport.

As first reported by Radaronline .com, Abdul reportedly had what a source said was an ''insane nervous breakdown that lasted 10 minutes'' during the LAX incident. According to the tipster, ''One minute she was hyperventilating. The next she was yelling into her cell phone in this deep, rage-filled 'Poltergeist' voice.''

However the The Sun Times reported that an inside mole on Idol said it was unusual for a day to go by on the American Idol set without her having some meltdown.

Also the article reports she is high maintenence and staff need to spend much more time dealing with her then the other two judges, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell.

However in good news for her apparently Paula will be playing at the SuperBowl. Lets hope it is better then Britany's MTV appearance!

In a it would only happen in America yarn. Apparently someone has pinched Paula Abdul, American Idol judge urine sample.

Apparently the guy nicked it as a keepsake - that is just sick.

If you really need to know more about this click here