ABC's "Fallen Idol" Special
ABC to Report on Ex-'Idol's' Claim of Affair With Abdul By LYNN ELBER, Reuters LOS ANGELES (May 4) - An ABC News special on competitor Fox's hit series "American Idol" will report a former contestant's claim that he had a sexual relationship with judge Paula Abdul while on the talent show, ABC News said Tuesday. Corey Clark, who Fox has said was dropped from "American Idol" in 2003 for failing to reveal a past arrest, told "Primetime Live" that Abdul helped him with advice and money. The hourlong special is set to air at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday, after the "American Idol" results show airs at 9 p.m. EDT. The Fox show is nearing its May 24-25 finale in which a winner will be chosen and get a record deal. Clark earlier made allegations about Abdul in an interview with the Globe tabloid, which reported that he was shopping a tell-all book. In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, Fox said Clark never notified the network or "American Idol" producers of any concerns about the show despite "multiple opportunities" for contestants to do so. "We will, of course, look into any evidence of improper conduct that we receive," Fox said, adding that the public should "carefully examine Mr. Clark's motives, given his apparent desire to exploit his prior involvement with 'American Idol' for profit and publicity." Dancer-singer Abdul, known for her upbeat critiques of even the most hopeless contestants, has punched back at Clark and ABC. Her lawyer sent a letter to the network threatening legal action if the special airs. "Mr. Clark is an admitted liar and opportunist who engages in unlawful activities. He is communicating lies about Paula Abdul in order to generate interest in a book deal," said an earlier statement issued on her behalf. Clark was arrested after a scuffle with his sister and eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge, ABC said. According to ABC News, Clark claims that singer-dancer Abdul, now 42, initiated the relationship when he was 22, which started as a friendship but then became sexual. The special reports Clark's allegation that Abdul "implored him not to talk about her to the media or publish his memoirs," ABC said, noting that Clark played one answering machine message for "Primetime Live." The contents of that message were not detailed in the ABC News statement. Clark alleges his first private phone call with Abdul came after an associate of hers slipped Clark a piece of paper with her number. "So she was like, 'You got to have better song choices, and I want to help you do that. I want to look out after you like, like, I'm your mom,"' Clark told "Primetime Live," according to an excerpt released by ABC News. "And then she was like, "Well, more like your sister." And I was like, 'OK, cool, cool' ... And then she was like, "Well, maybe more like your special friend,"' Clark told the news show. ABC plans to spend a full hour on this so-called story? Sheesh. It's clear that Corey Clark is just looking for attention. What a loser. :roll:

i watched and its sounds to me like she really did sleep with that nasty boy..... i didnt like him then and i dont like him now. hes a weasel......but it was pretty convincing.... :shock:

I watched it. I was hoping for more stuff from behind the scenes, but the whole hour was devoted to Clark and his story. I believe she helped him out. Theres the phone records and his mother even talked to her, and the recorded messages telling him not to say anything when the story broke. But I cant be sure about the sex part. There really wasnt any proof of that. Her messages they played saying not to say anything could have just been referring to the help she gave him. Which was still wrong. He claimed she bought him clothes, got his hair cut and helped him pick out songs. She told him to do a Journey song because it was one that Randy Jackson did with them. It worked. So did she help him out, give him an advantage of sorts...yeah I think she did. Did she sleep with him....there's really just his word and his friends claim that they saw her touch him at a club, so...I dont know. To be honest it wouldnt be a big stretch to believe it, but I dont know. When ask why he came forward, he said he had to clear his path of any dirt or something like that, so that he could move ahead with his career.

Re: Corey Clark
I watched the first 10 minutes of the special before going to bed. The narrater said something about Corey getting booted from the show in the final weeks of the competition. Um... yeah, whatever. Didn't Corey get booted only 3-4 weeks into the finals? I believe he was the 4th person booted from the final 12. The narrator was trying to pull the wool over the audience's eyes by making Corey out to be a top contender. Even if Corey slept with Paula, Randy, Simon, and every single voter... he had no chance of winning. I couldn't stand Corey back then... and I can't stand him even more so now.

so is it worth watching? I taped it, but I'm wondering if I should really watch it.

Re: Corey Clark
Shmoo, if you can stomach the sight of nasty ol' Corey, then you might as well watch it. It's worth watching just to hear Corey sing that horrible song of his. Another thing I noticed during the bit I saw of the program, Corey has a problem with looking at the camera and the interviewer. During the part I saw, he hardly ever looked the interviewer in the eye while sitting across from him. He kept looking down or off to the side. For those of you who saw the whole thing, did he continue doing this the entire interview? To me, someone who can't look you in the eye, is hiding something.

I found something doubting Corey`s story. And I agree with it completely. There are some holes to his story, especially the one with his friends meeting Paula. Why would she do all this "secrecy" stuff, then go out in public with him and meet his friends.. doesn`t make sense. Corey’s Story Has Holes, But We Still Need Answers from Paula by David Bloomberg -- 05/06/2005 After watching the Primetime Live special, David has found a number of holes in Corey’s allegations. However, he also believes there is enough to support Corey’s claims that we cannot simply throw them on the trash heap. Which evidence is good and which is bad, and what does the future hold for Paula? Read on to find out! I watched the Primetime Live “Fallen Idol” special fully expecting it to have nothing more than innuendo and baseless allegations. But ABC surprised me – they held their best evidence in reserve, springing it on the audience rather than alluding to it ahead of time. Still, not all of the allegations and information provided holds up to scrutiny, and I, for one, am still not convinced. Let’s take a look. I have some problems with parts of Corey’s stories. For example, as we all know from having watched AI2, Corey was out almost all night and got pretty much no sleep before the audition in which he serenaded Paula (that’s why he forgot the words and had to resort to the serenade). He was a party animal and the camera teams knew it. Yet that very night after the serenade – the night after he had been up all night once already – there were no cameras around when he snuck out. Plus, he said he went to her house and talked all night. So he got basically no sleep for two straight nights? Later in his discussion, we heard that the singers were locked in a hotel, but then immediately after that we heard that Paula and Corey went together to a Sprint store. How did they do that? We didn’t get an explanation. We also didn’t get an on-camera interview with the Sprint employee who claims he saw them in there together. Why not? And also, are we to believe that Paula went through all this super-secret stuff only to run around in broad daylight with Corey? Why would she need him at the store anyway? There are lots of holes in that one. During Corey’s story, he seemed to have skipped mention of how he and Paula managed to get together while he was supposed to be locked in a house with the other finalists. The tale talked about them together beforehand, leading to the Top 32, and then say the relationship ended when he was booted. Why skip the most important part during the finals? I have an answer – because the other finalists, like Clay and Carmen, said they saw no sign of anything then. So by not talking about it at all, Corey avoided having to answer these questions. What about the evidence that was presented? The phone bills are pretty solid evidence that something was going on. In fact, I would call those the most damning piece of evidence that Corey has going in his favor. What about the bottle of cough medicine? For all we know, that could have been retrieved out of a garbage can, for all we know. Or he could have had a cough and she offered it to him. The paper with the phone number that Corey was supposedly given by a friend of Paula’s? It could have been written by anybody. I bet with enough time (and he’s had two years), I could find out her number, too. Anybody could also find out the names of her dogs, no sweat. I’m sure it’s been in countless magazine articles and TV shows. Similarly, the location of her house could be easily discovered. What about the inside of her house? I recall (and some readers have verified) that we took a tour of at least part of Paula’s house a year or two ago. I don’t recall what part of the house, but it did strike me as odd that Corey could only describe the guest bedroom. I’m also sure that Paula has had the cameras inside her house for other entertainment shows and the like. Again, all of this information could have been discovered with a little work. What about her phone messages telling Corey not to talk to the press? Well, she really didn’t say much in them except not to talk to the press. Maybe she had an indication that the press was going to talk to him and just wanted to warn him – we don’t really know what she was thinking. Furthermore, the day before the show aired, Paula accused Corey of tricking her on the phone and taping her, then splicing things together. Primetime did not indicate if they had the tapes tested for that type of manipulation. Some have asked how she would know his phone number. Again, just about anybody can find out just about anybody else’s phone number without much effort. And let’s remember that if the allegations are true and she had talked to him on his cell phones during his time on Idol, those were different cell phones – one issued by Idol and one by Paula herself. So it’s not evidence that she had his number and kept it, because it had to be a new number. What about the statements from Corey’s friends and parents? While we can’t say flat-out that they were lying, we can say that they are, well, Corey’s friends and parents. If anybody is likely to support him, those would be the people. But besides that, Corey’s friends say they not only talked to Paula on the phone, but actually met her at a club. Once again, we have the issue that Paula supposedly went through all kinds of James Bond type actions to keep the affair a secret, but then showed up in public with Corey? That definitely does not have the ring of truth to it. There is a lot of very circumstantial evidence here, and a few pieces of something more solid. Some people believe that where there is smoke, there is fire. Unfortunately, I know that where there is smoke, there can also be mirrors, and all we’re seeing is deception. With all of this said, I think there is some evidence that something strange and possibly inappropriate was going on here. Paula needs to respond to it. Simply saying, “He’s lying, don’t believe him,” isn’t going to cut it when there are phone records that seem to support him. She needs to come up with a better explanation, and fast. If she fails to do so, many people will assume it's true. And if people assume it’s true, Idol has a problem they need to deal with. At the very least, there is currently a problem with the appearance of impropriety. Corey may have plenty of holes in his story, but there is enough there to raise serious questions. If Paula cannot rebut the charges, she needs to resign at the end of this season. I cannot see any other way out of this for her or for Idol: Either Paula comes up with counter-evidence, or Paula leaves.

I find it conveinent that he pulls this out of his hat now when he has a book and a CD. And, why if she really did want to help someone, why would Paula help him? He certainly wasn't the best there. I don't buy it. Lastly, if she did all this nice stuff for him, why is jeporadizing everything in her career? He's shooting himself in the foot either way.

Corey's whole story sounds fishy to me and the timing is very suspect. I have a question though. Wouldn't this alleged affair have happened at a time when Paula was supposedly suffering all kinds of pain and health problems? If so, it seems like an awful lot of hassle on her part for sex that she might not have been healthy or pain-free enough to enjoy.