'Idol' drama begins and ends with Abdul

Paula Abdul and ''American Idol'' return for an eighth season next month. (Peter Kramer/AP/file)

HOLLYWOOD - Paula Abdul has been telling people that the producers of "American Idol" have failed to protect her.

If this is true, it's shocking. Shocking that the producers would let a valuable asset like Abdul be in jeopardy for even one second. They should build a fortress around her and have it guarded by the most battle-hardened Marines. Because every time Abdul opens her mouth (and sometimes she doesn't even have to expend the energy to do that), controversy is stirred. This makes the PR job much easier for her main employer, Fox's "American Idol," back for an eighth season next month. This woman is worth more gold than any Senate seat.

If you haven't followed the latest saga, last month a former "Idol" contestant named Paula Goodspeed was discovered dead in a car outside Abdul's house. Goodspeed evidently had committed suicide. Abdul, understandably, was unnerved by this news - enough so, if reports are to be believed, that she has fled the house and put it up for sale.

The singer-turned-talent judge was also angry. She told Barbara Walters that the producers knew that Goodspeed allegedly had been stalking Abdul for years, but the producers decided to let her audition anyway because her Paula obsession was "funny." On "Idol," Goodspeed proudly displayed to host Ryan Seacrest the many portraits she'd drawn of the singer. Her audition was a flop, though, and Simon Cowell ridiculed her braces.

Nigel Lythgoe, the then-executive producer of "Idol," said last week he had thought Goodspeed was merely a fan of Abdul and he did not remember Abdul asking Goodspeed to be removed from the audition process. A representative for Abdul didn't return a call for this story; spokesmen for Fox and Fremantle Media North America, the show's producer, declined to comment.

Abdul told Walters that at Goodspeed's audition, she was so mortified she "couldn't even look up." On the tape she seems calm if not chipper, but viewers can judge for themselves on YouTube.

But the more relevant issue is: "Idol" has featured many contestants with no talent and dubious mental stability. In fact, during the auditions, that's really the program's chief draw. (This season, producers have promised to change that.) Goodspeed is hardly the only eccentric given the grand "Idol" treatment. But the reality-TV-as-humiliation-ritual style seems to trouble Abdul only as it relates to her own personal safety. That she now has turned the aftermath of Goodspeed's death into the opportunity to point fingers at other people for not adequately protecting her - Paula Abdul - is . . . well, what's the word? Unseemly, maybe? Delusional? Sad?

Or maybe just predictable. In the end, this really is all about Paula. Looking back, it's astonishing to realize how much of the media coverage for "Idol" is taken up with her. Does she hate Simon? Or secretly love him? Is she drunk? Crazy? Why does she cry so much? Does she sleep with "Idol" contestants? Can she reboot her singing career? And then this, always this: Is she leaving the show?

Abdul, in short, is among a handful of celebrities whose ongoing celeb-reality narratives, rich as any big fat novel, overtake whatever "project" they happen to be working on. The projects, in fact, serve to promote the celebrity, not the other way around.

"American Idol" is, let's not forget, the number one show in television. How much of that is directly attributable to Abdul is open to debate. But there's no doubt that with her around, "Idol" fans get two big stories for the price of one. If that kind of value isn't worth protecting, what is?