Kara DioGuardi had to be hospitalized after eating pot brownies at Paula Abdul’s

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Former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi used to be roommates with Paula Abdul back before Idol. The way Paula and Kara explain it, Idol Producers brought Kara in without knowing that the two were old friends. Kara has spoken in the past about how she suffered from a binge eating disorder around the time she was living with Paula. Paula noticed it, and just made it sound like Kara would wake up in the middle of the night and sleepwalk and eat. Maybe that’s how Paula made sense of the situation when a bunch of food went missing the next day.

Anyway Kara told a story on the George Lopez show about how she found some small brownies in Paula’s fridge, ate them and got really high. She called an ambulance later when she felt strange, never realizing that there were some drugs in the dessert. It must have been more than just pot because she had hallucinations and had to be hospitalized for a few days. It turns out that the brownies were left the freezer after someone brought them to Paula’s house during a party. The maid took them out to thaw, ate one too and had to be hospitalized:

Appearing on “Lopez Tonight” on Wednesday to push her new show, “Platinum Hit,” DioGuardi, the short-lived “Idol” judge, told the host about a certain baked good she ingested while Abdul was on vacation. Let’s just say chocolate wasn’t the featured ingredient in the treat.

“There were these, little nuggets, little, you know, take six, not a lot. Six hours later I was like, ‘heeeey, what’s going on?'” DioGuardi remembered. “I fell out of bed, on the floor, I stumbled downstairs and I was like, ‘I ate too much.’ And the ambulance comes and is like, ‘this b*tch is as high as a kite.'”

The end result? Three days in the hospital, hallucinations and IV fluids. But it could have been worse.

“The maid took them out, she was in the hospital, I had six, I almost died,” she said.

But no worries: the brownies didn’t belong to Abdul, she said; instead, a friend had left them there after a party. What were actually in those brownies, though, remains unknown.

[From Huffington Post]

That sounds awful and like one of those stories that’s only funny years later when you retell it.

Kara also told a story about how a friend introduced her to Steven Tyler and she got him the job on American Idol. It sounded realistic and not like she was bragging about it. She just said a friend of hers brought Tyler over to her house, they were jamming together and she asked Tyler if he ever considered Idol.

Kara has a new songwriting competition show on Bravo called Platinum Hit that premieres on Monday. There are reality shows centered around just about every career and industry, so why not songwriting? That’s not to say I think it will be a hit.

Here’s the video of Kara on The George Lopez Show. The pot story starts at 4:30.

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Kara is shown on 4/12/11 at the Elle Women in Music event. Credit: Fame Pictures

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29 Responses to “Kara DioGuardi had to be hospitalized after eating pot brownies at Paula Abdul’s”

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  1. the original bellaluna says:

    I don’t like her. But I would really, REALLY like to know what was in those brownies.

    (And I think pregnant Pink is ADORABLE! But probably miserable right now. But hey – at least it’s not August!)

  2. Suzanne says:

    Those are all the same stories she told on Howard Stern weeks ago. Would be nice if celebs doing press could change it up a little before their appearances become scripted and rehearsed.

    In other news, she definitely came off as talented, fun and entertaining on Stern, none of which showed through on Idol.

  3. matt says:

    She had to eat pot brownies because Paula had taken all the vicodin cupcakes.

  4. mln76 says:

    Pot brownies are a doozy and yes they can make you hallucinate and the high just keeps going BUT I don’t see how you can eat 6 because they don’t taste like regular brownies. They literally taste like grass.

  5. brin says:

    LOL matt!

  6. fabgrrl says:

    This is why you NEVER eat your roommate’s food.

  7. Brittney says:

    I’m sorry, but there was much more than pot in those brownies. Over the years of April 20th feasts, I’ve ingested a very, very sizable share of cooked weed (I mean, we made six-course meals, and the THC was strong in every single dish, even the salad — infused dressing), and there is no way it lands you in the hospital. Maybe psychologically, if you didn’t see it coming — but no. No IVs required. This kind of logic is like Reefer Madness all over again.

    Also, @mln76 — not if they’re baked the right way. Butter simmered for 24 hours until it turns green, strained, and mixed into the most delicious… okay, I think I’ll stop. I’m losing my credibility here, aren’t I…

  8. leuce7 says:

    @min76 and Brittney,

    I have to agree with Brittney, a friend of mine makes pot brownies and they are delicious (as brownies) and pack quite the wallop after a while…I actually don’t have them anymore. A bit much for me.

    But no hospitalization required.

  9. Lala11_7 says:

    @Brittney…

    Your credibility it cool with me…

    DO TELL!!!

  10. DGO says:

    I think she’s lying because she wants to discredit Paula. She blames her for her dismissal on Idol.

  11. Claude Yoola says:

    Cannabis does not cause visual or auditory hallucinations whether smoked or ingested. Euphoria and giggling, a sense of time passing more slowly than usual, a sense of hunger or the “munchies”, and finally, sleepiness. And there you have the full effects of the Demon Weed from start to finish. How terrifying! 😉

    As Brittney most sensibly points out above, if someone is unaware they’ve ingested cannabis, then of course they may experience some panic or psychological distress but there would be no hallucinations and certainly no medical consequences whatsoever.

    @Brittney: Isn’t it sad that telling the simple truth about an innocent plant growing out the earth should cause you to fear a loss of credibility. I hope one day soon this ridiculousness will be behind us all forever.

  12. LittleFATMe says:

    It could have been just pot. Pot food is nuts!
    Okay, so here and there through life I have smoked a bit. Got a little high and then it was over. As an adult that is behind me. Two years ago I was at a friend’s house and she was making sugar cookies with pot. I had never eaten pot (or cooked with it) so I sat in the kitchen with her and I watched her make them, cook the pot down into the butter and then we made the cookies. She was like, “Do you want one?” I figured, what the hell. OMG – that cookie effed me up! SERIOUSLY! I was seeing sh*t and high the next moring when I woke up. I told my GF at the time that I was worried because something must be wrong and I needed to go to the hospital. She, being a casual smoker, thought I was so funny and explained to me that when you ingest it the high is slower coming, hits much harder and leaves just as slowly as it came. NEVER again!
    BTW – the cookie tasted great, no grass taste. As far as going to the hospital, I know that I did not need to be treated BUT not knowing what to expect made me think I did. I can see how not knowing the brownies were laced she might go… The rest of the IV stuff – eh, I don’t know…

  13. danielle says:

    Who is she and how did she ever get on Idol in the first place?

  14. PrettyLights says:

    There could have been liquid acid or maybe even mushrooms in the brownies as well as or instead of pot, that would cause the hallucinations/ill feeling and if you ate enough you would probably need hospitalization, especially if you weren’t used to the effects. It’s Hollywood, who knows what coulda been in those things.

  15. Bill Hicks is God says:

    You can’t OD on pot and end up on IV drip in the hospital. That’s ridiculous. But, if she’s one of these people who gets heart palpitations or anxiety attacks from THC (like I do) she’s going to call the ambulance thinking she’s having a heart-attack, not feeling “strange.”

    She was likely on IV for fluids because she was dehydrated. When I hear “binge eating” bulimia pops into mind. Or she’s a drinker. They don’t keep you in the hospital for 3 days on fluids for pot and the person is hallucinating.

    They do, however, keep heavy drinkers that are going through sudden withdrawal in hospital under observation for Delerium Tremens which can indeed kill a person.

  16. Sparkly says:

    No way could that have been pot brownies. My vote goes to mushrooms if she says she was hallucinating and “could have died” because she had so many. I used to know folks who swore by mixing them with chocolate or on pizza to make it palatable. I would have thought that (either way) she’d be able to taste the ‘offness’ if she had six though. Pot brownies taste really green. Mushrooms are nasty, but you could potentially hide most of it if they were powdered and used a lot of really good chocolate.

    Although I agree with PrettyLights. They could have been laced with acid and you likely couldn’t taste that.

  17. Melinda says:

    I have had one pot brownie in my life. During the college years. That was CRAZY. I got so freaking high I couldn’t stop watching Blind Date. I thought it was the most facinating sociological experiment. Yeah…

  18. The Truth Fairy says:

    Almost died?? From pot???? Drama Queen and so yesterday. NEXT!!!!

  19. hellcat says:

    lol @ melinda it IS a fascinating sociological experiment…

  20. mln76 says:

    Thanks for the brownie tips I’ll pass it along to my brownie making friends (I no longer partake) but I got to say if she was on mushrooms she would have been tripping balls and way too out of it for the ER.

  21. Deb says:

    Could it be possible that the pot used to make the brownies was adulterated in some way? I heard of a substance called “Wet” or “Sherm that is pot adulterated with PCP. I am no expert on drugs, but I would definitely think that could cause hallucinations.

  22. Claude Yoola says:

    Years ago people were injured by pot sprayed with Paraquat, which I believe was a pesticide in use in Mexico/California. I forget what type of injuries exactly, probably respiratory in nature, one would think. Of course, pot which has been adulterated is not the same as unadulterated pot, which by itself is as innocuous as anything else you could ever find on the planet.

    Meanwhile, people will exaggerate their experiences with regular old pot and conflate their “buzz” with hallucinations. In reality it is not a hallucinatory drug, by itself. Thousands of years of safe human use of this plant has provided more than enough data for irrefutable proof.

    EDIT: I am wrong, Paraquat is an herbicide, not a pesticide. Here’s more info for the interested:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraquat

    Scroll down for the relevant pot info, and you will also see some interesting contradictory info.

  23. Kim says:

    3 days in hospital, hallucinations, iv – then it was a hallucinogenic and not pot. You dont get hallucinations or have to go to hospital for 3 days from pot – or many drugs – sounds like total exageration on her part.

  24. Pia says:

    Pot brownies can lead to some pretty intense fun times – as long as you know it’s coming. It probably was just pot and she was just freaking out.

  25. LunaT says:

    With herb, you have to be careful how you cook it, so I’m wondering if the same thing applies to mushrooms and LSD? If it’s exposed to heat, is it still viable? As a supporter of the herb, I know it’s got a different slant than what Kara was describing. I’m guessing she had something else going on in addition to/instead of the brownies.

    @Melinda—I miss Blind Date. Such a horrible show, but sooo fabulous to watch.

    @mln76—you need to find friends who are better chefs 🙂 b/c it can be tasty.

    @Brittney—you’ve lost zero credibility w/me. I’m wondering if we live close by so we can cook together 🙂 Like my hubby always tells me, way more people smoke herb than anyone might think. Or maybe that’s just in OR 😉

  26. kristen says:

    yikes! poor Kara loved her on AI! she was really good dont know why people wouldnt` like her. the new season works` really good love that JLO.

  27. Bunnywabba says:

    That sounds terrifying. How horrible.

  28. Mary Jane says:

    @LunaT: I’ve cooked with psilocybin and it’s great (omelettes, tea) for covering up the wonderful taste of dung. Ne’er saw the point of cooking with LSD (and can one e’en still find that anymore?). I make a lot of different infused foods, tinctures and oils (and in most, you cannot e’en taste the cannabis), but they are ALWAYS clearly labelled and kept separate. If Seattle doesn’t get on the food-truck bandwagon (I want to do a pot-food food truck), I was thinking of moving to PDX, so I may be in Oregon someday.
    I don’t think it was psilocybin brownies because e’en times when I’ve eaten waaaaayyyyy too many shrooms, the effects ALWAYS wore off after about 6-8 hours max and it ne’er made me feel scared, anxious, or paranoid.
    As many have already said, eating MJ is much different than smoking it and takes longer to hit. (Greedy bitch ate SIX brownies!!!) I know some long-term, hardcore potheads who got WAY too high eating MJ and practically freaked out — and the effects last a whole lot longer too. And I couldn’t imagine eating pot food without knowing about it (but with my friends, I’d probably figure out it was laced).
    I’m almost thinking this story may not e’en be true and that Kara’s just trying to make Paula look bad (like she needs help) now that Paula’s back in the spotlight, and she’s trying to make herself sound badass.

  29. LunaT says:

    @MaryJane—totally forgot about tea. It’s been a while 🙂