Nigel Lythgoe, former executive producer of American Idol, who is now focusing on So You Think You Can Dance and his new NBC series Superstars of Dance, has responded to Paula Abdul's recent claims that American Idol producers knowingly sent in Abdul's stalker to audition in front of the judges in season 5 of American Idol.  Paula Goodspeed, Abdul's stalker, recently committed suicide outside of Abdul's Los Angeles home.  Earlier this week, Abdul intimated that the producers of American Idol were at fault for allowing Goodspeed to meet Abdul, and subsequently put her in danger.  Today, Lythgoe responded, saying that Idol did not know Goodspeed's past, and only knew that she was a major fan of Paula Abdul.

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Lythgoe discussed the situation with People Magazine, saying, "You do not take somebody in that room that you believe is a danger to herself or a danger to Paula. That would not enter our heads." Lythgoe continued, “This is what we knew: Goodspeed was a lovely girl, and a great fan of Paula."

Maybe Paula protested, maybe the producers ignored her, it's impossible to know.  However, I think you have to give American Idol the benefit of the doubt here.  They a;ways have more than enough footage of crazy people, and if Paula had truly protested and had the producers known the history of Ms. Goodspeed, then I cannot imagine they would have allowed the audition to occur.

If you're the number one television show in the history of the universe, as American Idol is, you can expect controversy to follow you.  If only because the more popular an institution is, the more scrutinized it becomes.  More people care, and when you have more people caring about anything, the chances increase that a few nutters will get involved every now and then.  American Idol is set up catering to crazy people in its audition phase, and having one of the wannabe Idols turn out to be a complete psychopath was more or less inevitable.  That doesn't make this situation any less sad, however.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: TVGuide, People
(Image Courtesy of FOX)