Paula Abdul has spoken out about the fact that the woman who killed herself outside her home, Paula Goodspeed, was allowed to audition for American Idol. Abdul says it’s the producers’ fault and that she clearly told that that Goodspeed was stalking her but that they let her on anyway just to mess with her, and they even invited her back.
Paula Abdul says the Fox network and “American Idol” producers knew Paula Goodspeed had stalked her, and allowed the woman to audition for the show anyway. “I said this girl is a stalker of mine and please do not let her in,” Abdul said Monday during an interview with Barbara Walters on her Sirius XM radio show.
Goodspeed was found dead of an apparent suicide in a car near Abdul’s home last month.
Abdul said “Idol” producers ignored her protests and brought Goodspeed on the show “for entertainment value.”
“It’s fun for them to cause me stress,” Abdul said. “This was something that would make good television.”
At the behest of producers, Goodspeed appeared on the show more than once, Abdul said.
Both Fox and Fremantle Media North America, which produces “American Idol,” declined to comment Tuesday.
Abdul, 46, said Goodspeed had written her “disturbing letters” for nearly 18 years and that she maintained a restraining order against the woman at times.
[From AP via Breitbart]
People’s write up on this story has more information about it, and says that Goodspeed followed Abdul home from an audition accompanied by her mother and that’s how she learned where the singer lived. I guess we know why the stalker’s family didn’t intervene if they were enabling her like that. Goodspeed regularly sent disturbing letters to Abdul, sometimes including naked photos of herself and saying that she wanted Abdul up in Heaven as her guardian angel.
As for why she’s still on Idol despite the fact that producers probably put her in harm’s way by encouraging this woman, Abdul answered “I’m under contract.”
Abdul said on The View earlier this week that Goodspeed’s death on November 12 was not the first time she had attempted suicide in front of her home. She said Goodspeed had overdosed in her car on the street on another occasion and gone “code blue.” Abdul is selling her home and has not returned there since the incident. Along with the bad memories there, she also has to contend with the fact that her address has been made public.
Can you blame Paula for coming out with this news that producers overruled her objections to letting a stalker on the show? They may have been responsible for setting up a situation in which this woman was able to follow Paula home. American Idol has been under fire for exploiting mentally disabled people to make for entertaining and mock-worthy footage. They seem to be willing to exploit their judges too. It’s a good thing Paula wasn’t hurt because it seems like it could have been a real possibility.
Paula Abdul is shown at the Swing Vote premiere on 7/24/08. Credit: PRPhotos
I no fan of Paula’s but I am on her side over this. What those producers did was very mean to her and that stalker. Then again, Paula speaking out may be another effort by the producers to get publiciity for the show. After all no publicity is bad.
Paula is still on the show because she has no where else to go. What would she do? Her attempts to revive her music career failed miserably.
It’s easy to say, after someone has committed suicide, that everyone “went too far.” The fact of the matter is, until it’s too late, Paula’s “weird stalker” on AI is why America tunes in.
If this is true, it’s beyond irresponsible. I know Paula’s a bit of a mess an’ all but if she expressed genuine concerns as to why this woman, with a known mental health history, was being allowed to participate in AI, then the programme makers should have put those concerns before the woman’s so-called ‘entertainment’ value.
I hate that part of American Idol. I don’t enjoy watching clearly mentally disturbed people being messed with.
The producers might not have taken Paula seriously and think the stalker wouldn’t do much arm as she was a woman. They were wrong and macho : a woman stalking another, that’s just hilarious for some big hairy men, you know !
I guess I just don’t understand people, but if I were auditioning my known stalker, I wouldn’t have behaved so flippant. I would have been handling her with kid gloves. Yes, the producers were assholes, and clearly they knew (from the featured art and Simon’s comment about the similarity) but I think Abdul should have been less glib about it, unless she was in on the joke.
I’d have to agree with her. I work in banking and it’s not rare for us to get customers who turn into stalkers. In every instance the company I worked for requested that I contact the police to get documentation on file and then they would close all of the customers accounts reguardless of what they had with us.
That being said I’m a little torn. I only watch the auditions on American Idol. Having studied music in school and privately since I was 8 vocally and by instruments I reserve the right to laugh my ass off at people who think they can sing. I don’t think it’s fair to make fun of mentally challenged people though. I wish AI had a better way of weeding those people out of the auditions.
i dont know if i believe her.
i mean, everyone knows paula is a little (a lot) kooky, but this is just too much. first, if this lady was stalking her FOR 18 YEARS, you would think something would have been done before this…right? and wasnt the woman that killed herself only like 30? i dont know of a whole lot of 12 year old stalkers. but whatever.
AI is the highest rated show on FOX, why would they let a stalker audition if they knew she has some serious mental issues? they dont need THAT kind of publicity, i think they do pretty well without it.
i jsut cant beleive this story.
The problem with this story is that Paula has been playing the victim for several years now. Her reason for staying is that she’s under contract. Why not break the contract? People do it all the time and if I felt my employer was ruining my reputation (which is slander and libel by the way) and endangering my safety, I wouldn’t feel obligated to complete a contract. She has more control in this situation than I think she is acknowledging. She could be suing the producers if all this were true but she’s not. Things that make you go hmmmm…..
Aleach, thank you. Here I was feeling bad about saying Paula may be milking the notoriety (on another thread), and then I read your post. You’re 100% right, I googled the woman – she was 27 years old when she was on AI. Impossible for her to have stalked Paula Abdul for 18 years. Now I’m even more annoyed that Paula appears to be using this girl’s death for her own gain.
Stalking doesn’t necessarily mean following people around. You can stalk people by writing letters, are you seriously telling me that you don’t know any 12 year olds who write letters to their idols?? If anyone is going to write to a famous person, it would be a kid! Do you know any adults (that aren’t mentally disturbed) who do that? She probably started out as a kid and slowly the obsession built, you know?
But I do wonder why Paula doesn’t just break the contract… really. Surely she could afford a good lawyer to get her out of the contract. But either way I don’t like the way AI lets mentally unwell people audition, its cruel. I always thought they must have employed actors to behave that way because they couldn’t possibly be real people. But I guess I was wrong!
People who’ve never been stalked don’t take it seriously enough … stalking in and of itself is psychopathic behavior, and should have been treated by American Idol producers with seriousness. Now they’re responsible for this girl’s death … but what’s worse, if not her, then it could have been Paula.
January is National Stalking Awareness Month. Paula Abdul’s experience is not limited to celebrities. 78% of stalking victims are women. 54% of female murder victims reported being stalked before they were KILLED! Paula Goodspeed eventually decided to take her own life, rather than Paula Abdul’s, but stalkers often kill or otherwise injure the object of their unwelcome attention. There is no federal statute directly addressing workplace stalking, but the Supreme Court is now considering whether to hear Martin v. Howard University, a workplace stalking/sexual harassment case, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (www.dvmartinlaw.com/MartinvHowardUniversity. In addition to the legal issues, we need to provide law enforcement with some real alternatives. Courts can issue restraining orders, but people with mental problems are rarely deterred by them. Paula Goodspeed was clearly a danger to herself and others — primarily, to Paula Abdul. Stalkers need to be confined and provided with mental help, for their own sakes and the sakes of the people they might kill or otherwise injure.
It’s true that we would need more info to understand the previous stalking, but in the video of Goodspeed herself, as a contestant, she says that she has been a fan of Paula Abdul since she was a child and that the first picture she ever drew was of Paula Abdul! So, I would not summarily discount the possibility that Paula Abdul had been receiving strange or disturbing letters from Paula Goodspeed since she was 12 or 13.