The story has raged on the front pages for months.
It has consumed hours on radio talk shows. It has sparked a debate about ethics and whether one side was blatantly lying.
It has been the “buzz” watercooler talk, even where there weren’t any watercoolers.
It involves someone who has loyal, almost fanatical followers. It has taken up miles of computer screen space on weblogs. And now it has (seemingly) been resolved due to this red, hot story: the special investigation is now over.
No, we’re not talking about the scandal involving Karl Rove and the outing of a CIA official. We’re talking about the fact that Paula Abdul fans’ long, national nightmare is over: Fox News has quickly announced that she has been cleared of charges that she had a sexual affair with one of the contestants on Fox’s smash American Idol TV show:
There is no proof American Idol judge Paula Abdul had an affair with one of the show’s contestants, according to Fox TV, which says Abdul will remain on the show.
“An enhanced non-fraternization policy” will be in place when Abdul and her fellow judges return next season, however, to prevent future incidents that could call into question the relationships between judges, contestants and others connected with the show, Fox officials said.
“I’m grateful this ordeal is over, and I’m so looking forward to getting back to the job I love,” Abdul said in a statement issued after Friday’s announcement by Fox. “Once again, I thank my fans from throughout the world for their undying love and support.”
Fox announced last month it was hiring an independent counsel to investigate claims by former American Idol contestant Corey Clark that he had a sexual relationship with Abdul when he was a contestant in 2003 and that she helped him prepare for his performances on the show. Abdul dismissed the claims as lies.
Fox said the two lawyers it hired could not substantiate Clark’s allegations.
The New York Daily News notes the depth of this vital investigation:
After an investigation worthy of a landmark Supreme Court case, Fox TV suddenly announced yesterday that it found no reason to kick “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul off the show.
Abdul was accused of making whoopee with a show contestant, Corey Clark.
After 600 hours of work over 31/2 months – during which 43 people were interviewed and volumes of “records and materials” were examined – the verdict was that Clark had no proof to back up his claims.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times could seemingly not pry out of its Foxy sources the answer to the question Americans (including probably Karl Rove) now are clamoring (hey, this is how the news biz works: we writers assume we are psychics and know what all of America is thinking) to know: exactly what will this nonfraternization policy entail?
The producers were sufficiently concerned by the scandal, however, to toughen its non-fraternization policy, aimed at preventing any future incidents that could appear to call into question the relationships between contestants and judges or any other individuals working on “American Idol.”
The statement did not elaborate on those measures, and a Fox spokesman said that no one at the network or the production companies would discuss the investigation or the new policy.
Aha! So no one will discuss a new policy that is supposed to keep the program’s credibility intact.
Clark had been one of 12 finalists on the program before being disqualified for lying to producers about his criminal record. He had alleged on an ABC Primetime special titled “Fallen Idol” that he and Abdul had had a sexual affair and that she had helped him choose his songs and his outfits for the show.
Clark: your next step should be to find a lawyer who can sue Abdul on the grounds that the outfits contributed to your losing the competition.
Meanwhile, America is now debating (I told you I’m psychic): is this report the REAL truth or it is CYA (of course, if there had been CYA at the outset perhaps the report would have been unnecessary in the first place..)
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.