By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, November 13, 2008
And now -- the dark side of the four-week-long Bad Auditions portion of "American Idol" that traditionally kicks off each season of the country's No. 1 television show.
A woman found dead of an apparent drug overdose in a car near "Idol" judge Paula Abdul's Los Angeles home on Tuesday night was an Abdul obsessive who had twice auditioned for the Fox singing competition. She was handpicked in the fifth season to become one of those wannabes the show's three judges would savage on national TV during the early weeks of that season.
Paula Goodspeed, 30, was among the delusionally bad performers who each year pass the initial screening process and are rewarded with an on-camera audition before Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson -- not because they are so very good, but because they are so very bad, so very not-ready-for-their-close-ups and, in many instances, clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic.
Over the years, "Idol" has been blasted for the so-called "bad auditions" episodes, which traditionally consume the first four weeks of each season. (This season, they're being shrunk to three weeks, to spend more time with the semi-finalists during Hollywood Week.)
In 2007, this "Idol" tradition made news when Rosie O'Donnell, then co-host of "The View," attacked the hit reality show the morning after Cowell mocked two lousy singers -- a young man who appeared to be mentally challenged and had participated in the Special Olympics, and his friend, who had unusually large eyes, prompting Cowell to call him a "bush baby."
The "American Idol" process, Rosie proclaimed, "is to ridicule people who are mentally unstable."
And Americans lap it up; the year Goodspeed was targeted, the show's first four weeks clocked an average of 32 million viewers.
Fox had no comment yesterday on Goodspeed's death -- ditto the show's producers. (Meanwhile, coincidentally -- yeah, right -- "American Idol" announced yesterday that it had allocated more than $64 million in grants to six U.S. and international charities from last season's star-studded "Idol Gives Back" fundraising event.)
Police said yesterday afternoon that Goodspeed's death appeared to be a suicide by overdose, Reuters reported, adding that investigators found prescription drugs in the car with Abdul CDs and pictures.
In a statement issued yesterday by her rep, Abdul said she was "deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday."
According to Goodspeed's MySpace account, she went to her second "American Idol" audition in Austin, Tex., in August 2005.
Arriving at the audition site at 5 a.m., she finally got into the arena four hours later and was given a seating ticket. At 2:45 p.m., her picture was taken and she got in line to sing in front of a table where three producers sat. They sent her to the next round and told her to be sure to wear the same outfit.
A couple of days later, she auditioned again; this time she would have to sing three songs for executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick.
"Ken Warwick immediately liked me and my fashion sence [sic]," she reported, adding that he told her "Yes, yes! Your [sic] thru!" before she'd sung her second song. "Both judges were really cool to me and really getting into my performance!" she reported.
She got to audition for Paula, Randy and Simon a month later. "And with the nerves and stress, well, that's what everyone got. . . . I sincerly apologise. Anyway, People . . . if you saw my clip you know what happens next."
What happened next was that Goodspeed told host Ryan Seacrest, "I really think I'm a pop star," and "they call me a fashion genius."
"Who calls you that?" Seacrest smirked.
She told Seacrest, "I really like Paula Abdul a lot. . . . I am a really big fan, and I make life-size drawings of Paula. I've been making drawings since I was a little kid, and my first drawing was of Paula Abdul."
"Brace yourself -- your number one fan is on the way," Seacrest's disembodied voice was heard saying by way of a segue. Goodspeed entered the audition room; when she began to sing, Jackson began to laugh. Paula said the performance left her "speechless" and not in a good way. Simon said he didn't think anyone could sing with that much metal in their mouth (Goodspeed was wearing braces). She was told that she wasn't going through to Hollywood, and she left. "How did she get through the metal detector? It must have gone crazy!" Simon cracked.
"It's very hard reading such awful things being written about yourself or hearing things being said," Goodspeed wrote on her MySpace page after the audition that was never really an audition. "I have to believe there is something good about me."
Yesterday, several people left comments, like little bouquets of flowers, on her MySpace page:
"Rest in Peace the world knows you name," one said.
"I Think the World might be a better place now that you have offed yourself, I mean i hate to be Callous but Honestly, to off yourself over that Piece of human Trash Paula Abdul. That's retarded," added another.
* * *
News network MSNBC has instituted a seven-second delay on its program "Morning Joe" after host Joe Scarborough accidentally used an expletive.
The delay was added to the news program on Tuesday.
Scarborough slipped Monday while discussing the brusque manner of Rahm Emanuel, incoming White House chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama. Specifically, Scarborough said Obama should be surrounded by "good, decent, steady men that don't go around flipping people off, or screaming '[:0] you!' at the top of their lungs."
Once he realized his mistake, Scarborough apologized profusely.
The seven-second delay will not be used on any other MSNBC programming, network rep Jeremy Gainestold The TV Column. It was "a mutual decision," he said.
Did we mention that MSNBC is a news network?
Scarborough's show replaced that of Don Imus -- whose MSNBC program had a seven-second delay in place, Gaines acknowledged, when Imus and his producer were heard on-air referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "hos." Imus was sacked over that broadcast.
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