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Living ‘la vida nakakaloka’ with Paula Abdul
By Nestor Torre
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:10:00 04/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Quite a number of stars have agreed to become the subjects of reality TV shows like Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott, the Kardashian family, the Redgraves, and luminaries who join celebrity editions of “Survivor” or “Biggest Loser”-type challenges.
For weeks on end, cameras record their every move, both in private and in public as they temporary barter their privacy for a hefty fee and additional fame or notoriety, as the case may be.
At any price
Why do they do it? Well, the money helps, especially if stellar careers aren’t flying as high as before. And some stars just love publicity at practically any price.
Still, it would be discomforting to many of us to find cameras ogling and recording almost everything we say or do. Well, that just goes to show that there’s a great difference between some stars and their non-stellar counterparts.
This goes double for those luminaries who believe that the viewing public has the “right” to invade their privacy, as part of the unspoken “contract” between them and the fans whose avid patronage made them stars in the first place.
Other celebrities debunk this notion, pointing out that all they owe their public is a good and professional performance. The discussion continues to rage, even as new celebrity-reality shows hit the TV screen, with differing levels of success or excess.
The latest celebrity to allow cameras to observe (parts of) her day-to-day activities is singer-choreographer-host Paula Abdul. Her renewed popularity as one of the three “American Idol” judges has gotten people curious about her again, hence her decision to benefit from this renewed interest by joining the “aquarium” stars who choose to live (again, parts of) their lives in full public view.
Abdul’s show, “Hey, Paula,” gamely shows the TV-recording star’s good and bad sides. The episode we viewed covered Paula’s preparations to grace an awards show, after which she rushed to the airport to catch a cross-country flight to boost the sale of her jewelry line on a TV shopping channel.
Paula’s flurry of activities was instructive, because it informed viewers about the plethora of details and considerations that go into keeping a star’s career on an upward trajectory.
The public usually just gets the glamorized “finished product” of all of those preparations, so it was truly eye-opening to see how slowly and sometimes painfully those results were achieved.
Sensitive
In Paula’s specific case, it turned out that she had become very sensitive about negative comments related to the way she looked and dressed. So, for the awards show, she took pains to look great—with the help of what looked like an entire platoon of stylists, dressers, PR people and sundry staff members.
We were dumbfounded to see so many people working hard together to make Paula Abdul look sensational for the awards show-and she wasn’t a really big star, even.
Well, Paula’s staffers did succeed making her come off well at the awards rites, so she was elated. Trouble was, she enjoyed her “moment” so much that it stretched longer than it should have—so, she was late for her flight!
Daunting temper
To make things worse, she didn’t like the travel clothes that her assistants had packed for her, so she flew into a stellar temper tantrum, delaying her arrival at the check-in counter all the more.
Apparently, Paula’s staffers were used to her stellar snits and took her tirade with a pound of salt. But, we found her peevish display of temper quite daunting—and a far cry from the “sweet,” “supportive” and “caring” Ms. Abdul more usually on view on “American Idol.”
Paula’s next stint, on the TV shopping channel, was also fraught with tension, but her jewelry line was sold out, so she was happy. Finally, a happy ending to an unnerving week with a rather antsy, anal star. Hey, Paula, relax!
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