Oh, I don’t think it was either one; you were just expressing your opinion. But if I may, I’d like to correct how you characterized my statement in your response — I didn’t say that Paula got him into the final twelve, but that it was in her power to influence whether he got to the final twelve. Her advice on clothing and hair would be invaluable, since the judges so often consider the look and image of contestants in their judgments. Her knowledge of the likes and dislikes of other judge’s song choices and whatnot also translates to great advantage over other contestants who know much less about such things. To say that she lacks the ability to give advice that would be helpful is to cast her as rather hapless and clueless, which she might well be. But if that is the case, then she shouldn’t be judging anyway. Now, I’m not going to rehash the reasons I believe him. I stated those in detail in the other thread, and if I engage that here, we’ll just end up repeating ourselves over and over. All we can do at this point is see how it plays out.
I dunno. Who do you sleep with for that?
I meant what Corey is doing to Paula is slander. (Or libel.)
But as I say, it was ultimately up to the voters, not the judges. And it could just as easily have been the stylist who told him to change his hair.
All he says is that she told him to choose a Journey song because Randy was in Journey. As I said, that was already common knowledge. Plus which, it could have backfired on him; Randy could have said, “You’re no Steve Perry,” or “I was already sick of that song and you didn’t improve on it.”
She is, in the opinion of many. And her comments are usually gushing rambles of glurge. “You had fun up there! You made it your own! That was all the colors of the rainbow!” I know you didn’t talk about her comments to him, but I just thought I’d add that. At any rate, it was only the beginning of the second season; not much of a pattern had been established as to what kind of advice would really be helpful.
And if anyone underwent an astounding cosmetic change, it was Clay. And no one claims he was mentored, so clearly, a contestant doesn’t need a judge to help them improve their look; just the stylists.
Wll, like I said: repetition. If I noted, for example, that Paula might have known that the song was a favorite of Randy’s he wasn’t tired of, and that he had recently said he wished someone would do it, then you might respond that that was something everyone would know. But you see, the devil is in the details for me: e.g., it is one thing to know the address of a star; it is quite another to navigate a reporter — at night — through the streets of Beverly Hills, telling him to turn left here, turn right there, and advising him that they are approaching Paula’s house on the right. Also, if there was any contact at all (and I believe that phone bills and voice mail message proves that there was at least some), then it was a huge surprise to seven of the thirty-two who didn’t make it, all of whom made clear that they never had any contact with the judges outside the auditions. None. Zero. And that is as it should be for all contestants without exception, don’t you think?
Didn’t he also say she always sent a car for him? How many people being chauffered around pay attention to the route they are taking? If he was in a limo I think he’d be playing with the gadgets and bar and not paying any attention to the streets.
I really don’t care one way or the other. I don’t think she’s an effective judge anyway, she’s just there to prop the performers up when the other judges knock them down. The worst she ever says to a performer is that it wasn’t their best performance or she didn’t like the song choice. I doubt she has any influence on how the public votes. She’s pretty much just a joke.
It doesn’t really matter whether we care, because it’s illegal.
In the 1950s, it was discovered that many quiz shows were rigged. Contestants were not only given the right answers, they were coached to grimace and grunt while struggling to answer, all to make the show more “entertaining.”
Once the scandal broke, the FCC required that any show which coached their contestants say so, proudly and loudly. So the question is not whether Paula Abdul gave Corey Clark some private “coaching” but
a) Did Corey Clark get some sort of unfair advantage (even though he didn’t win) over other contestants and
b) Did Fox disclose that to viewers?
He said that she sometimes sent a car (which is what she did that first night), sometimes his friends drove him, and sometimes he drove himself (in a friend’s car).
You’re entitled to your standards, but speaking for myself, I don’t care if she’s Simon’s doormat and Randy’s ragdoll — so long as she’s a judge, she has no business offering favors to one contestant over another. Simple as that.
The fact that the other seven did not have contact does not mean that Clark did. Other season 2 finalists have said on camera that they were busy 18 hours a day, and the mansion had three security guards, who were aware of all comings and goings. If he had been sneaking out to her house, someone would have known.
And Primetime Live was very cagey, in the wake of Memogate, to preface every statement with “Corey claims…” and “Corey tells us…” instead of definitively stating, “These are calls made from…”. The first two digits of the blacked-out numbers on the bill matched the first two digits of the blacked-out numbers on the scrap of paper shown early on. No proof that either of those numbers was registered to PA.
(I’m not trying to convince you of anything, Lib, so don’t feel hounded. Just saying that you haven’t convinced me.)
Very interesting comments, but except of one or two of the responders, assuming, and its a big assumption, that things did play out the way Corey said they did, “Would you have done the same in his relative shoes”? 
Oh, he appeared to claim that Paula was helping from early on in the competition and that her advice was crucial to his success, since as a 22-year old he had not the money contacts or experience to do well. 
Corey got into to the top 10 before being booted by the Idol producers for having "lied on his application about a previous arrest. This meant that other Idol wannabe’s did not and missed their chance for the extra exposure that Corey got that might have lead to who knows what kind of deal in the future? :mad:
It is even possible that the extra exposure could have lead to an Idol win for the displaced - who knows? SO, in this way, IF Paula’s help got him unfairly into the top 10, or helped to get him more firmly established as a winner, was this something that should disqualify her from future Idol judging or is it all just human nature and is this just a waste of electrons? :eek: 
Finally, Does it matter that Corey seems to have made the first move? :dubious:
Peter, Founder and Chief Evaluator ;j
International School of Weblog Repair and Sexy Rockstar Evaluation Center
While she does struggle at times to say something nice to say about a really awful performance, I don’t think that any of the contestants consider Paula a joke, because, at least in this season, and I think in the past, if you get on her bad side, or look like you are a serious threat to one of her favorites she can make critical remarks that can influence your chances. But rather than go for the Jugular as Simon does, Paula tends to damn with faint praise. “That was good.” Silence. No other reinforcement. Sending a clear message to Paula’s own fans that she was not overwhelmed.
Who does she influence, lots of younger girls and quite of few of the men too. Those whe see her as a balancing influence to Simon who plays mind games and has too many agendas and Randy who we suspect is not always taking it very seriously and consistently from one singer to the next.
Peter - If you find 10 cents in your pocket, be glad of the new paradigms.
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