"I Don't Mean To Be Rude, But..." Interview With Simon December 18, 2008
Simon Cowell, best known for being the outspoken judge of American Idol, allowed a group of journalists to interview him via conference call this morning. I must admit that I was a little taken aback to be included with the likes of people from Fox News, TV Guide, and CNN! While I did have a question ready for him, I never made it to the front of the queue. Luckily, he did cover the things that I was wondering about.
The interviewers were overwhelmingly interested in the new fourth judge, and also about the recent controversy regarding Paula’s stalker and Idol auditioner. The fourth judge is songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who I had never heard of until recently. Fox insists that they’re doing it because they want to have a second woman, and because the British version of the show has four judges. Of course the rumor mills claim that it’s Fox’s way of beginning to show Paula the door.
As for Paula’s stalker, it is getting quite a bit of coverage lately because Paula was recently interviewed on Barbara Walters’ radio show. There, she claimed that Idol producers allowed Paula Goodspeed to audition in season five, even though Paula asked them not to. Paula’s words were “I said, this girl is a stalker of mine, please do not let her in, everyone knew I was shaking, but it’s fun for the producers to cause me stress.” She claims that Goodspeed had written her “disturbing letters for nearly 18 years,” and she had taken out a restraining order in the past.
Idol claims that they knew the woman was a fan of Paula’s, but they ‘don’t remember’ Paula asking that they not let her audition.
I watched a video of the audition, which portrayed Goodspeed as one of the many wacky personalities that we see every season. Wearing a long pink skirt, and sporting a mouth of braces and an oddly shiny face, Goodspeed obviously had an abundance of self confidence. She did reference Paula Abdul when talking to Ryan, saying that she’s a big fan. She says she makes life sized drawings, and her first drawing was of Abdul. Ok, I must admit, that’s a tad creepy.
In the audition room, Simon points out that the two Paulas have more similarities than just their names. Paula Abdul doesn’t actually seem overly nervous, in fact she chimes in with a few comments about their similarities. As Goodspeed launches into a horrible version of “Proud Mary,” Abdul smiles an amused smile. After Goodspeed is done, Abdul says “speechless, and no, it’s not a good thing.” Randy tells Goodspeed that she’s terrible, and Simon says she can’t sing with all that metal in her mouth (braces). The judges tell Goodspeed that she hasn’t made it to Hollywood, and she exits the room. Outside, she says “they can go f*ck themselves, I don’t care, I was pitchy on a couple of notes, big f*cking deal, come on, it’s not over, I am not going to stop singing just because you don’t like my voice.”
As far as I know, that’s the last we heard about Goodspeed until we heard last month that she was found dead in front of Abdul’s house. It was reported that she had a picture of Abdul hanging from her rear view mirror. Paula claims that Fox made her home address public, explaining how the other Paula easily found her house.
And now, on to the interview. The first question was about Kara, how the new dynamic is, and why Simon thinks it’s going to work. Simon’s reply (I’m going to try to get through this whole thing without having to type ‘Simon says.’) is that he doesn’t know if it’s going to work, and he won’t know until he sees the show. He says he supports trying new things, and “that’s the delicious thrill of reality television.”
Next, Simon is asked about the new format, particularly focusing less on the “train wreck auditions” and also adding the wildcard round. Simon answers that he hasn’t been crazy about the process over the last few years, and that we often got bored with contestants at about the fifth week. The wildcard will make things more fun and he thinks that’s a good idea.
Simon has been quoted as saying that he thinks a guy will win this season. He is asked if this is because the guys are overwhelmingly more talented as a group, or if he has someone in particular in mind. Simon’s answer is that at Hollywood week, the guys stood out more than the girls. He adds that he has said this in the past and has been wrong, and someone “may emerge in the middle stages,” the way Kelly Clarkson did.
An individual from Texas asks Simon if there are any good Texans in the mix this year. Simon laughs and says he can’t remember where the contestants are from. He is also asked how the “crop is overall this year.” His answer is that we have an interesting bunch. He says last year it was “like battle of the blondes, they all looked the same, this year there is more personality, they’re standing up for themselves, they’re different from people we’ve had before, so I’m optimistic.”
A guy from TV Guide asks Simon how he feels about the new Emmy category for Reality TV judges. Simon laughs, and says he didn’t know about that. In typical Simon fashion, he says “it’s a good thing if I win, a bad thing if I lose, I wouldn’t hold your breath on me winning.”
Simon is asked about Kara’s qualities as a judge. He says she has written hit songs, has an opinion, and is well qualified. Then he is asked if Kara’s experience working with Idol contestants in the past will help her or hinder her (that seems obvious). Simon states the obvious, that it is probably a good thing. He adds that she’s “not snobby about this process, and she’s not going to look down on the process, which is a good thing.”
The next question goes back to what Simon said about boredom with past contestants. He is asked about his role in the early selection process. Simon’s answer is “we tried to be as broad and openminded as possible, so we don’t end up with twelve people from Stepford Wives, it’s important to have all types of singers and people, and personality is as important as talent on a show like this.” He mentions that Fantasia was talented and “had a great vibe,” which makes the show more interesting.
An individual from CNN Showbusiness Tonight asks Simon about the
“publicity surrounding the tragedy surrounding the former contestant, and Paula’s claims that the Idol let her former stalker audition for the show.” I can feel Simon’s feathers start to ruffle. He says right off the bat that he doesn’t “like referring to this person as a stalker, so let’s
refer to her as a fan, what happened was awful, my regret is that we didn’t know how troubled this person was, if I could have gone back in time, I wish that we could have spent time trying to help her, but we genuinely didn’t know.” He goes on to talk about how they don’t research people before the open auditions, and how the contestants are all told that they will face criticisms in the auditions.
Simon pauses for a moment to.....
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