Is this what it's come to, or am I offbase here? Wait, just wait a sec before you respond ... and take a look at what Scott Collins wrote in the LA Times today at the Show Tracker blog:
Paula Abdul has been telling people that the producers of "American Idol" have failed to protect her.
If this is true, it's shocking. Shocking that the producers would let a valuable asset like Abdul be in jeopardy for even one second. They should build a fortress around her and have it guarded by the most battle-hardened Marines. Because every time Paula opens her mouth (and sometimes she doesn't even have to expend the energy to do that), controversy is stirred. Celebrity reporters feel their pulses quicken. Stories erupt. And this makes the PR job much easier for her main employer, Fox's "American Idol" (back for Season 8 next month, in what is surely just a coincidence). This woman is worth more gold than any Senate seat.
And of course it goes on to recount the recent story of the Idol auditioner/Paula stalker that killed herself in her car recently while being parked down the street from her home.
It's got me thinking about the way that the most successful entertainment properties are being sold, those being at this moment Idol and Britney Spears.
Brit sold more than 500,000 copies of Circus last week. Do you think that would have happened without her being in the public consciousness so much over the last two months? Just look at the blog you're reading right now, and I'm not even following closely. I didn't say a thing about the MTV special here and still I had a bunch of stuff about her various live TV performances and there was plenty of possibly-manufactured controversy that came just out of a short trip to the UK to promote the CD.
Now Idol is ramping up for their return and the big story is the girl who committed suicide and the wacky judge who was the focus of her attention. And everyone seems to have something to say to the press about this.
And, as Scott said at the beginning of his piece, this is "surely" just coincidental timing, huh?
I said, "HUH?"
Someone actually died. I certainly hope the the gang at Fox and their people at (the anti-union) Fremantle USA aren't being so jaded that they would use the event just to promote the new season of the show that props up everything else on its schedule.
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