Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul said that being perceived as stupid was one of the most annoying misperceptions people have about her.
Abdul, 48, who returns to television next week with her own dance reality competition show, also insisted that she was naturally goofy and that her sometimes volatile public behavior was not the result of drugs or alcohol.
“I am intelligent, I am,” Abdul told Julie Chen in an interview broadcast on CBS Sunday Morning.
“But, people don’t give you enough credit for having a brain,” Chen replied, according to a transcript released on Thursday.
“Having a brain, that’s a concept, yes, with Paula Abdul. I have a brain,” Abdul said. Abdul was an American Idol judge for eight years before quitting the TV singing contest in 2009 in a contract dispute. Her often odd behavior on the show sparked rumors about drug taking.
But the dancer and singer told Chen: “I’ve never had a drinking problem. Even though I’ve been in this business for quite some time. I’ve never physically been drunk in my life. I’ve never been drunk in my life. I don’t use recreational drugs. But, I am goofy.”
“It’s Paula. It is Paula. And, even the people on Idol know that none of that existed, ever,” she said.
Abdul’s Live to Dance TV show starts on CBS on Jan. 4.
Abdul sounds like she’s doing better than Chuck Berry. A Chicago fire official says the 84-year-old rock-and-roll legend felt ill and was checked out by ambulance medics before a show on Saturday night. An audience member at the show, however, said Berry slumped over during the show and was offstage for at least 20 minutes.
Fire department spokesman Joe Roccasalva said Berry felt better and signed a release. Roccasalva said the confusion arose because emergency personnel later responded to a patron at the show who was unwell.
But concertgoer Steve Handwerker said Berry fell face-first over the keyboard and was helped offstage, though he later returned.
Berry is known for his pioneering rock songs including Maybelline and Johnny B. Goode.
Country pop diva Shania Twain celebrated New Year’s by getting married on Saturday in a private ceremony in Puerto Rico, her manager said.
Twain tied the knot with Frederic Thiebaud, two years after splitting with her husband of 14 years Robert Lange — who allegedly had an affair with Thiebaud’s then wife.
The couple announced their engagement last month, and chose a romantic island location to exchange vows hours after seeing in the new year.
“They were married at sunset in Rincon, Puerto Rico, in front of 40 of their closest family and friends,” Twain’s manager Jason Owen told said in a statement to cited on the Canadian-born singer’s Web site.
Celebrity bible People magazine reported that the pair became romantically involved in 2009, finding solace after their respective spouses allegedly had an affair that broke up both marriages.
In a letter to fans last month, Twain wrote: “In the last two and a half years of adjusting to life after separation and divorce, I needed to lean on others more often than I was accustomed to. I am excited to share some personal news with you: I’m in love!” she said, adding that Thiebaud was “a compassionate, understanding friend and over time, an amazing love has blossomed from this precious friendship.” Twain and music producer Lange had married in 1993, six months after meeting. Living between homes in New Zealand and Switzerland, the couple had a son who was six when they separated.
Meanwhile, executors of Michael Jackson’s estate welcomed on Friday a TV channel’s decision not to air a TV program re-enacting the pop icon’s autopsy, which it called exploitative and in shockingly bad taste.
But the King of Pop’s executors said it hoped the show, which the Discovery Channel agreed to postpone “indefinitely” citing legal reasons, would never appear on screen.
“The co-executors of the estate of Michael Jackson are pleased that Discovery Channel made the correct decision in choosing to cancel this exploitative program,” co-executors John Branca and John McClain said. “We are hopeful that this show will never run in any market in the future.”
In a letter to Discovery Communications on Wednesday, they had blasted the channel’s “blind desire to exploit Michael’s death, while cynically attempting to dupe the public into believing this show will have serious medical value.”
The pair were especially angered by a European promotional advertisement for the program that shows Jackson’s trademark sequined glove emerging from beneath a coroner’s white draping sheet.
In response, Discovery agreed on Friday to pull the program, saying: “Given the commencement of legal proceedings beginning next week, and at the request of Michael Jackson’s estate, the scheduled broadcast of the medical documentary related to Michael Jackson’s official autopsy has been postponed indefinitely.”
The Jackson estate’s executors said pressure from fans had helped persuade Discovery to pull the program.
“While Discovery cited legal proceedings and our request as the reasons for its decision, none of this would have happened had it not been for the incredible passion displayed by countless Michael Jackson fans worldwide who knew they stood as one and that their voices could not be ignored,” they said.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009 at age 50 from drug-induced respiratory arrest at his Beverly Hills mansion after his personal doctor, Conrad Murray, injected him with a powerful cocktail of sedatives and painkillers to help him sleep.
Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter in February. A judge set a deadline for prosecutors to gather evidence in the case before tomorrow, when a pre-trial hearing is scheduled.
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Oct. 14 to Oct. 20 After working above ground for two years, Chang Kui (張桂) entered the Yamamoto coal mine for the first time, age 16. It was 1943, and because many men had joined the war effort, an increasing number of women went underground to take over the physically grueling and dangerous work. “As soon as the carts arrived, I climbed on for the sake of earning money; I didn’t even feel scared,” Chang tells her granddaughter Tai Po-fen (戴伯芬) in The last female miner: The story of Chang Kui (末代女礦工: 張桂故事), which can be found on the Frontline
There is perhaps no better way to soak up the last of Taipei’s balmy evenings than dining al fresco at La Piada with a sundowner Aperol Spritz and a luxuriant plate of charcuterie. La Piada (義式薄餅) is the brainchild of Milano native William Di Nardo. Tucked into an unassuming apartment complex, fairy lights and wining diners lead the way to this charming slice of laid-back Mediterranean deli culture. Taipei is entirely saturated with Italian cuisine, but La Piada offers something otherwise unseen on the island. Piadina Romagnola: a northern Italian street food classic. These handheld flatbreads are stuffed with cold
President William Lai’s (賴清德) National Day speech was exactly what most of us expected. It was pleasant, full of keywords like “resilience” and “net zero” and lacked any trolling of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Of course the word “Taiwan” popped up often, and Lai reiterated the longtime claim of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a claim that now dates back 30 years on the pro-Taiwan side. But it was gentle. Indeed, it was possible to see the speech as conciliatory, leaving room for the PRC to make a gesture. That may have been one of its purposes: if
RSS