Two bits of highly entertaining awesomeness
So, American Idol returns to the small screen tonight (must . . . resist . . .) and it looks like Paula Abdul is already celebrating with some early-morning intoxication:
WOW. She’s got that obvious air of “I am trying very hard to sound wise and coherent so that you won’t notice I am completely smashed” as she swerves in and off screen. As Paula says here, it is what it is.
Also, Barry Manilow can apparently be quite bitchy. Recently Cristina Black from TimeOut New York got assigned to interview him; she decided to try and make the best of it and came up with some pretty interesting questions. Too bad she only got to use three and then he hung up on her. Read her scathing response to Barry here. Awesome.
Name: Heather Browne
gimme whatever she’s on
Satisfied '75 — January 16, 2007 @ 11:01 am
At least Barry understands that no matter what he sings he’s not rock. Someone should point this out to Billy Joel. The writer obviously had an agenda and Barry probably sensed it right away. She says she grew up on Can’t Smile Without You which was a hit before she was born. If she grew up on it, or even grew up at all, she would understand that this is his style of music and it suits him well. And it still sells.
Philco Brothers — January 16, 2007 @ 11:14 am
But she is always like that, isn’t she?
Anonymous — January 16, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
wow….how embarrassing. wait it’s Paula Abdul.
dwymer7003 — January 16, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
yeah, i kind of think that chick’s questions for barry were more about her than about him, which is kind of lame. but barry should have just been a big boy and answered them. funny, when other musicians act like little bitches to reporters, though, people think they’re cool. or something.
c — January 16, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
So think that she was trying to find an interesting angle for the questioning. I mean, the general audience for TimeOut is young folks, generally speaking? Or if not young, young at heart — that is fairly hip and not listening to Barry Manilow on their iPods so much. So the challenge becomes to ask questions that people will actually want to *read* the answers to. She tries to talk about relevant events (the MSG show), rock and roll, and the possibility of playing up the kitsch in his favor. He didn’t have to be so snitty about it, sez me.
heather — January 16, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
I couldn’t resist and watched the last hour of Idol tonight. I don’t know what is wrong with Paula Abdul, but she acted every bit as wasted on the show as she did in this interview.
But I’d probably drink a lot if I had to sit through some of those performances, too.
aikin — January 16, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Admittedly, Manilow could have been a good sport about the questions, and no doubt his ego’s fairly large anyway, but these snarky interviews (which seem to be fairly common nowadays)can’t be much fun to sit through, and once he detected that tone, he bailed. I think the icing on the cake was when the interviewer referred to his work as ‘kitsch’ (in a complimentary way? Huh?). I’m not a big fan of his music, but I doubt he thinks of his music as hackwork. And if we’re discussing thin skins, indeed, check out Black’s rebuttal on Time Out New York’s blog. “Clive Davis’s Bitch”? Verrry professional of her–seems he struck a nerve.
Marc Morrison — January 16, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
With Paula choreographing The Bratz — should be one swaggering show
sirensong — January 18, 2007 @ 8:32 am
It’s really so, so bad, the slurring, the mouth drooping — leading me to think that maybe she has some sort of chronic ailment that she’s hiding (beyond just general lushness)?
heather — January 18, 2007 @ 8:46 am
indeed I feel lame just adding a comment on the Barry & Paula speculations…
1st off, I would’ve taken my comment directly to Time Out but they offer no such privileges to their peanut gallery. And, like some here suggest, this Time Out profile is hardly going to make or break the man’s career. He’s doing her a favor by even taking the call…
If he chooses not to take career advice from some blogging half wit that’s half his age, with none of his talent or even semblance of success, well good for him.
As for Paula, not sure what health condition makes one look shnockered, maybe she has the same disorder Danny DeVito has…
I think the symptoms are showing up for your pleading publicist’s morning show PR push after an all night session with the booze and blÖ…
ps thanx fer da tuneage…
m — January 18, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
Does anyone else think that Paula Abdul may be suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) ?
swimsterx — February 6, 2007 @ 7:05 pm