'Idol' rumors about Paula Abdul?

Is there anyone alive who doesn't love, at least just a little bit, good old fashioned gossip? Especially when the gossipee happens to be the famously sympathetic “American Idol” judge, apparently sweet, apparently loveable, Paula Abdul. Of course, the truly juicy bit of gossip is that she may have known at least one of those contestants a little too well.

Ken Baker: “Corey Clark is alleging that Paula Abdul seduced him.”

Ken Baker is the senior West coast editor of US Weekly. The old Hollywood cliché. Former “Idol” contestant Corey Clark is reportedly peddling a tabloid kiss-and-tell that is raising the question, are one of TV's hottest shows for four years straight and a beloved judge the pretty ex princess of pop, in for a crash landing?

Baker: “People have opinions about Paula Abdul. They love her. They don't like her. They think she's loopy. And that makes her a really good TV personality. And it's worked for the show.”

But is it still working? 

Few things sell so well as a lurid headline, but this one in the tabloid, The Globe, questions whether Abdul tried to fix the contest by promising some secret help. Clark says The Globe alleges she promised to choose his songs, help his style, and no matter what happened in the contest, even put up $2 million of her own to make him a star. 

Baker: “If what Corey Clark is saying is true, then Fox has a big mess on their hands. And Paula Abdul has an even bigger mess on her hands.”

Yes, but in 2003, Kimberly Locke was a fellow contestant, and was disappointed there was virtually no contact with their famous judges. Even sneaking a meeting on the down low would have been very difficult.

Baker: “Somebody would have seen it. We had a security guy. So it was like you had to bypass him. And he took names.”

And it was discovered that Clark wasn't exactly the ideal idol. The show's background check had failed to turn up criminal charges then pending against him. When producers found out, Corey Clark was finished. Pat Lalama is a correspondent for "Celebrity Justice."

Pat Lalama: “He's ambitious. He's disgruntled, perhaps. He has an axe to grind. There's a dollar sign in each eye.”

Neither Fox nor American Idol had a comment for Dateline, though the show's executive producer has dismissed any suggestion that the show is fixed, and fellow judge Simon Cowell, has called the charges rubbish. Efforts to reach Corey Clark were unsuccessful.

And Paula Abdul has issued a statement saying Clark is communicating lies about her in order to generate interest in a book deal.

Scandal, once started, is however, not so easy to put to bed. So was it a coincidence when Paula's own so-called "secret battle" with her medical issues appeared in People Magazine around the same time Corey Clark's allegations surfaced elsewhere?

Lalama: “It's what I like to call the Hollywood preemptive strike.”

Paula was shocked, according to this latest story, to learn that “Idol” fans had been posting Internet questions about her. Was she on drugs? Taking pills? Hasn't she been looking, well, stoned?

Lalama: “It's a come to the table, lay your heart out, let me tell you about my 25 years of pain and suffering.”

But has it really been so secret? Or is it actually an old story to be told again at a vulnerable time?

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