Oh no! Crucially important American Idol personality Paula Abdul is making noise about leaving the show because producers haven’t yet offered her a new contract for Idol’s ninth season, which begins taping in just three weeks (and Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest have both reportedly negotiated enormous raises). “Very sadly, it does not appear that she’s going to be back on Idol,†says Abdul’s new manager — she hired him at the end of June, probably just to say things like this — to the L.A. Times. “I find it kind of unconscionable and certainly rude and disrespectful that they haven’t stepped up and said what they want to do.â€
Because most viewers agree that the addition of a fourth judge was an unnecessary, TiVo-breaking mistake, we’re probably supposed to believe that 19 Entertainment will dump whichever of the show’s loopy female adjudicators is most expensive. Since practically nobody likes Kara, though, we assume producers will eventually be forced to come through with a reasonable (but maybe not Seacrest-size) salary bump for Paula. But if it can, in any way, help prevent another “No Boundaries,†we’ll happily reprint verbatim all the fear-ratcheting things Abdul’s manager says to the press in the name of securing his client a larger paycheck.
Because most viewers agree that the addition of a fourth judge was an unnecessary, TiVo-breaking mistake, we’re probably supposed to believe that 19 Entertainment will dump whichever of the show’s loopy female adjudicators is most expensive. Since practically nobody likes Kara, though, we assume producers will eventually be forced to come through with a reasonable (but maybe not Seacrest-size) salary bump for Paula. But if it can, in any way, help prevent another “No Boundaries,†we’ll happily reprint verbatim all the fear-ratcheting things Abdul’s manager says to the press in the name of securing his client a larger paycheck.
Paula Abdul’s manager: She’ll leave ‘Idol’ if ‘rude’ producers don’t step up new deal [Idol Tracker/LAT]