Paula Abdul demands more money
Is Paula Abdul being paid less than she's worth?
Following the news that Ryan Seacrest scored a $45-million contract for his next three years on “American Idol,” Paula Abdul is threatening to head for the door if her salary isn’t improved.
It isn’t as though Paula Abdul needs online cash loans to get by. TMZ says Paula Abdul has been making between $2 million and $3 million as a judge on “American Idol.” That’s a big improvement from the $5,000 per week she made for the first season. Of course, back then, no one knew what a massive success the show would become.
Media speculation
TMZ is guessing that Paula Abdul wants $4.5 million per year; less than a third of the $15 million per year Seacrest will bring in. I guess even she knows that Seacrest is a hot commodity and, unfortunately, she is just not worth as much.
But Paula Abdul still believes she is worth more than what she’s getting paid. Her manager David Sonenberg said: “She’s not a happy camper as a result of what’s going on. She’s hurt. She’s angry. . . . Very sadly, it does not appear that she’s going to be back on ‘Idol.’”
However, TMZ says “she’s now doing the Hollywood thing of pretending like she’ll walk.” I guess we will have to wait to see who is bluffing.
Will Twitter campaign help her case?
Paula Abdul’s fans have responded the way most young people to things that they are concerned about nowadays: They have started an online campaign at a social networking site. The KeepPaula news thread on Twitter was the second most popular topic on Saturday.
Living it up
It’s no surprise that Paula Abdul needs a lot of dough to keep her happy. Her very first album, “Forever Your Girl,” released in 1988, sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. It also sold more than 7 million copies in Canada and went platinum in the U.K.
Back then she was also very sought after for her dance choreography skills. Her second album, “Spellbound,” also went multi-platinum in the U.S. and Canada, and it went gold in the U.K. Her musical career sort of petered out after that, but she kept busy with a few acting gigs until “American Idol” and her own reality TV show on Bravo came around.
No time to waste
TMZ reports that “American Idol” auditions are scheduled to begin Aug. 6, so Paula Abdul and the show’s producers are running out of time to reach an agreement.
However, TMZ also reports that the show is prepared to go ahead with the auditions without her if they haven’t reached an agreement by then. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she will be off the show if they don’t sign contracts by then, it just means there is a possibility that Paula Abdul will be absent from the judging panel for part of the audition season.
Disclaimer
Of course, all of this business of Paula threatening to leave if she doesn’t get more money may sound all too familiar, as it has happened before. Some tabloids say this is all just hype to get attention for the show.
Furthermore, I have seen a few sources who report that Paula Abdul already makes considerably more than TMZ reported, so who knows what to believe?
I like Paula Abdul. She was one of my favorite artists when I was a child. However, times have changed and people need to accept it. There’s nothing wrong with asking more of something if you feel you absolutely deserve it. However, if that’s what they have settled on, she must either take it or utterly leave it. Why send wrong signals when you’re intentions are totally contradicting? If she keeps up with this, the show might just decide to let her go. $2-$3 million is more than enough to live off of. I doubt there’s anywhere else she could score that kind of money.