The more I think about Paula Abdul's now-infamous slip-up — criticizing a song that was yet to be performed on last night's American Idol — the more ridiculous it gets. Popwatch has a report from inside the auditorium on what they've dubbed PaulaGate, saying even the audience was audibly snickering as Paula launched into her critique.
Paula's since given two explanations for what happened — one that she accidentally gave Jason Castro the critique meant for David Cook, the other that she gave Jason feedback based on her notes from the dress rehearsal. Considering that Paula's feedback for Jason was negative but her comments for David were positive, the first theory seems pretty implausible — but the second one could make some sense.
Of course, there are a few other possibilities, too — namely that Idol is more scripted than it claims to be and/or that Paula is crazier than we even thought. So, consider this your opportunity to post your conspiracy theories on PaulaGate and Idol in general. Is it scripted? Does it bother you that the judges could give feedback based on a performance the rest of us didn't see? Is Paula just nutso? If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out after the jump. If you're ready to weigh in, just read more.
Photo courtesy of Fox
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I think it makes sense that they were notes from the dress rehearsal. It's what I assumed when I was watching. I also think Paula was noticeably loopy for the entire show. It must be hard to keep your notes straight when you're high as a kite.
Anyhow, we've always known the judges watch the dress rehearsals. They've made comments to that effect before when a contestant performs significantly worse than in rehearsal. It makes sense that they would be organizing their critiques - at least in their minds - from the rehearsal performance. That way they don't have to be jotting notes during the live show, they have time to think about what they want to say and Paula can boogie woogie the whole time and not pay attention.