The young woman, Paula Goodspeed, was found dead in her car outside the celebrity judge’s house last night. She appeared on the show in 2005 as one of the unwitting contestants who’s used for comedic relief in the audition episodes. Anyone who auditions for a reality TV show knows what they are getting into, but Gabe tells us why there is something particularly insidious about the audition episodes of Idol that Is unique in the reality TV field.
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This kind of thing articulates the fallout of what happens when you take naive, innocent kids who simply believe that they are, or want to become, big stars, fill their head with “cult of celebrity” garbage, chew them up and spit them out into this process. How sad. My sympathies to her friends & family.
You know, on the other hand, I’ve reviewed the audition piece of Paula Goodspeed. Her obsession with Paula Abdul is incredibly obvious. This poor girl didn’t need to go on American Idol: she needed a mental evaluation and psychological help. Nothing like taking someone who is clearly mentally ill, putting them in front of their obsession and filming the fallout of rejection — like Robert DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin character in the film The King of Comedy.
That makes me even sicker.
She was an hero, to take that shot, to leave us all behind. God do we wish we could take it back, And now she’s on our minds. Paula was an hero, to leave us feeling like this, Our minds are rubber, our joints don’t work, Our tears fall into abyss. She was an hero, to take that shot, In life it wasn’t her task, shee shouldn’t have had to go that way.
Ricky Gervais put it best in the Extras Finale…….. “The Victorian freak show never went away. Now it’s called ‘Big Brother’ or ‘American Idol,’ where in the preliminary rounds we wheel out the bewildered to be snickered at by multimillionaires. You can’t wash your hands of this. You can’t keep going, ‘Oh, it’s exploitation, but it’s what the public wants.’ No.”
My pary is with the father, who lost his chrilden. We need to do way instain audition, who kill these contestants because these contestant cant frigth back?
It was on the news this mroing.
Wouldn’t it be better and more humane if they killed all of the contestants at the end of each season? Particularly the winners, of course, but tragedies like this could be avoided if they made a clean sweep.
While it is always unfortunate when someone commits suicide, let’s stop call her a “girl”. She was 30. She was also mentally ill, which means putting her into the spotlight in front of her obsession wasn’t the best of ideas. I wonder if her family knew she was going on American Idol. While at 30, she’s an adult and can make her own decisions, I hope that the family–if they knew of her plans–tried to prevent her from going on American Idol. Shame that she committed suicide and did not receive the psychiatric help she obviously needed.
Americans are so bloody naive.Now all the pc a-holes will now jump (as usual) to crazy conclussions.FFS the women was a grown up no what do u do if someone has an obsession i mean look at Americans obsession with Barrack never mind that he is more than capable they vote for things like his looks etc (CNN)
love these comment pages where any illiterate inbred like ynki can enlighten us with his/her wisdom. P.S. wtf is american idol?
Enough with the god and hero comments. This woman was weak and easily manipulated. Do we really need anymore weak minded fools in this world? She had and made choices like we all do, and just because she didn’t get to be a Diva movie star we all now are supposed to feel bad for her?
I want to win the next 100 million dollar lottery, but if I don’t, I’m going to kill myself!?!? GO AHEAD i say. We really need to analyze why we feel sorry for the weak minded fools on this planet. We don’t need people like this, black, white, asian, spanish, male, female, young or old. We need strong minded folks that have the ability to reject hollywood and money from day one and live their OWN lives.
So really people, enough with this self pity crap. In the wild, animal mothers destroy weak offspring because they know they won’t make it or will be a burden on others. After all, we are animals too! (Sorry religious fuck wits, its true!)
TO YOU, MYSANTHROPE: I coudn’t help but notice that you had to use vulgarity in expressing your opinion. Research shows that those who must use vulgarity to get their point across are below average intelligence. These people have a very difficult time getting along with others due to their inablitity to comprehend or appreciate opinions of others. They’re generally anti-social, which by the way, is a psychiatric disorder. It’s also a known fact that “strong minded folks,” have the ability to empathize with others. I’m sorry, but according to what you stated about a fellow human being who took her own life, shows that you are not a strong minded person. You seem to have forgotten something very important. Love is a religion. There are literally thousands of religions, Atheism included, in this universe. I don’t know, nor, do I care what your religion is – That’s your right. However, it’s not your right to call people “animals.” I’m not going to provide you with the literal meaning of the word animal. If you don’t know it by now, you’re not even old enough to be on the internet.