Paula, we hardly knew ye

Last week, Paula Abdul was the guest host on The Friday Night Project on Channel 4 (the show is being repeated as I write this, but see the results for yourself on YouTube). This would usually have been the cue for me to be glued to the set... just shows you how times change.

I'm happy that she's gotten famous again after her early '90s heyday (not only did I get several letters in Fresh! [US "urban" music magazine, sort of like the poor man's Right On! defending her against that twat Janet Jackson], but I got my first penpal through sharing a common interest in her), but it's sad that it's due more to her being a judge on a reality TV update of Opportunity Knocks and her personal problems - the polite term - than to her music and dancing gifts. Yes, she hasn't had an album out since Crazy Cool tanked, and The Waiting Game isn't exactly Angels in America as far as TV projects go (and Bratz: The Movie? How the mighty have fallen)... the days of choreographing the Oscars (as she did in 1990) and American Beauty are a long time ago. And now that the Bravo show's bombing, even longer.

But dammit, I want my Paula back! I want to be sitting here glancing at still-quite-cute-now-she's-45 Paula while listening to Paramount Pictures 90th Anniversary Memorable Scores ("Hard to Starboard" from Titanic - which is only part-Paramount really since they merely chipped in $65 million to help out Fox when everyone thought it would flop... but anyway) and I want to be feeling guilty. And I do. But not enough to stop.

Enough, though, to wish Avril Lavigne wasn't on this show (her body is beautiful but her music ain't). And enough, alas, to probably check out that Bratz flick.