Congrats to David Cook. Wow, he gets a platinum album for selling 1 million downloads for his smash hit "The Time Of My Life".

Who could ask for more? Not David Cook.

I mean how many artist have you ever heard of that had a song reach #1 on the Billboard Charts then fall a few spots then reach #1 on the Billboard Charts then fall a few spots then reach #1 on the Billboard charts....Again? 

That song must be pretty special.

It's special alright, but not for the reasons you might think. If you want the real reason then do yourself a favor and read my blog....then when your done maybe you'll write an email to the F.C.C. like you should. Thanks.

Here's a couple of links for you.

David Cook gets his platinum album.

David Cook gets his 3rd Billboard #1 with the same song.

And here's the link to the F.C.C.

Google is a wonderful thing when used correctly. Like when I type in...oh I don't know...say...Time Of My Life for example. Wow, 318 million pages. Of course David Cooks platinum hit pops up right near the top and Wiki is right there too. I've already posted something on this subject a few weeks ago. The short version goes like this.

American Idol held a songwriting contest looking for a song that the winner could sing on the GRAND FINALE and Regie's song won. Great. Wonderful. Lovely. Regie Hamm was named the winning songwriter. Regie says he wrote it. USATODAY.com says he wrote it. Regie's Wiki page says he wrote it. American Idol says _________ wrote it. I'm sorry about the blank spot, I'm still waiting for American Idol to say he wrote it. The problem I'm having right now is that the song Time Of My Life has it's own Wiki page and it has a new songwriter listed. His name is Daniel Coursey. His bio has been deleted but the name remains, even after someone (I don't know who) updated the Wiki page. Next to Daniel Coursey's name is a tiny number for a link to Poetry.com where you'll find a poem called Waiting. Something funny is going on and I don't mean Ha Ha funny.

Tens of thousands sent $10.00 each to enter this songwriting contest.

Did Daniel Coursey?

Here's the Wiki page for Time Of My Life.

Here's the Poetry.com page for Waiting.

The following quotes (Except mine) can easily be found on the internet.

Paula Abdul:
“I said this girl is a stalker of mine and please do not let her in.”
“But it’s fun for them to cause me stress.”
“This was something that would make good television.”
“Everyone knew. I was shaking.”
“She had been writing disturbing letters for 17 years, almost 18 years,”
“We had restraining orders at times.”
“I get very upset because I don’t want to destroy a young talent before it emerges. And so much young talent, I think, is destroyed on American Idol.”
“I’m under contract.”

Nigel Lythgoe:
“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.”
“I honestly say I can’t remember the conversation,”
“The producers had seen her, we’d seen her. She was an absolute fan of Paula’s, so she’s going to go in there to say, ‘I am your biggest fan, now that gives Simon Cowell great material, which if you saw it was all things like, do you sing as well as Paula? And do you copy Paula?”
“This is what we knew: She was a great fan, she was a lovely girl. And a great fan of Paula.”
“This is three years ago. I honestly say I can’t remember the conversation. If Paula said, that’s what she said, I believe her.”
“We’ve seen over 700,000 contestants. And one has made a terrible, terrible mistake. If you’re an odds man, they are great odds.”

Simon Cowell:
“I really don’t like referring to this person as a stalker. So let’s refer to her as a fan,”
“I have thought long and hard about this. I think we will continue in the way we’ve always done it. In the main, we’ve tried to have a sense of humor over the whole process,”
“What happened was awful. My regret is that we didn’t know how troubled this person was.
If I had gone back in time and known what she was going through, I wish we could have spent time trying to help her, but we genuinely didn’t know.”
“You’re talking about a human tragedy,”
“When something like this has happened, it does make you take a step back,”
“I’ve always thought it important to show people at home that when bad singers come in and they are not very good, that it is time to give up that type of dream and take a normal job.”

Ken Warwick:
“If we think anybody is even appears to look dangerous or violent in any way, they don’t even get into the room. I would never contaminate the credibility of the show by putting someone dangerous or someone who would hurt themselves in that room. I just wouldn’t do it. It’s not worth it.”

Me:
Oh yeah Ken? Then explain this.
Here’s a video on youtube called….
“A stalker love song for Paula Abdul”
He sang about stalking Paula Abdul for 1 minute and 10 seconds and was no more than 3 feet away from Paula when he did it.

And Randy just laughed and laughed and laughed.
Not so funny now, huh?

Here’s a few more quotes for you.

Ryan Seacrest:
“Brace yourself Paula, your number 1 fan is on the way.”

Paula Abdul:
“Well Paula, I’m speechless.” “Don’t know what to say.”

Randy Jackson:
“That was terrible, I mean, what was that?”

Simon Cowell:
“I don’t think any artist on earth could sing with that much metal in your mouth anyway.”
“You have so much metal in your mouth.”
“That’s like a bridge.”
“How did she get thru the metal detector?”
“I mean it must have gone crazy.”

Paula Goodspeed:
“Peace out.”

Here’s a video of Paula Goodspeeds audition on Youtube.

Yeah, your right. There’s no way her audition was embarrassing.

Paula goodspeed is dead.

Was she a stalker?

Paula Abdul says she was, Nigel Lythgoe says she was just a fan. Here's a quote from People.com.

Nigel Lythgoe "We've seen over 700,000 contestants. And one has made a terrible, terrible mistake. If you're an odds man, they are great odds." End quote.

OK, I'll see your Paula Goodspeed and I'll raise you 1 bush baby.

When your playing with peoples lives maybe those odds aren't so great.

Maybe it's time we folded and cashed in our chips.

Do you remember the Andy Griffith episode where Gomer tried to arrest Barney? I can still remember what Gomer said "Citizen's Arrest, Citizen's Arrest". That was funny. What happened thursday at the Hollywood & Highland mall was not. Four WGA West staffers were arrested on suspicion of trespassing. They were passing out leaflets protesting that American Idol is not under WGA jurisdiction, which I believe is a freedom of speech kinda thing. Guess those mall cops never heard the old saying "The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword". Bad idea arresting people who make a living from the written word. You know? Like newspapers, magazines, television and letters to an attorney.

Here's a story from Variety.com.

How many people are living in America? Around 300,000,000 or so? How many try out for Idol? 100,000 or so?

Year after year they come try for some dream they won’t find, like Paula Goodspeed. It seems harmless enough, sing a song, maybe get a little airtime. But at what cost? Sure America gets a few laughs, but some of these people are counting on being a famous star. They’ve bet everything they own on this 1 shot at fame, only to be kicked to the curb with nothing to show for it except to have everyone in AMERICA laughing at you.

Why doesn’t someone just say ENOUGH is ENOUGH!

Here’s a story from the latimes.com website.

Why?

Was it because maybe she and Randy and Simon used her for a few laughs and this poor troubled woman who NEVER EVER had a chance ended up killing herself?

Here's a ? for you. How many people who work for Idol talked to Paula Goodspeed before she even got to audition for S, R and P? At least 1 that I know of (Ryan Seacrest). Because of Paula Goodspeeds death her audition tape has been shown EVERYWHERE and it took me about 5 seconds to see she was troubled, but what the hell let's have some fun with her.

Good for ratings.

Here’s a quote from the Washington Post

“Fox had no comment yesterday on Goodspeed’s death — ditto the show’s producers. (Meanwhile, coincidentally — yeah, right — “American Idol” announced yesterday that it had allocated more than $64 million in grants to six U.S. and international charities from last season’s star-studded “Idol Gives Back” fundraising event.)”

The following is a quote from USAToday.com

"The song was among "tens of thousands" submitted and combed through by 19 Entertainment's more than 60 Artists & Repertoire staffers, who winnowed the list to a manageable pile before Idol creator Simon Fuller and his team pruned to 20 semifinalists, says Jeff King, 19's U.S. head of digital entertainment." End quote.

So if 60 different people were choosing ...then how did we end up with so many people with ties to A.I.?

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Finalist (Andy Zulla) is an engineer on Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, Diana DeGarmo CD's.

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Finalist (Windy Wagner) is a backup singer on the new Clay Aiken CD.

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Finalist (Ryan Gillmor) wrote the song "Hey" which is the theme song for Fox Television's show "Unhitched".

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Finalist (Dan Yessian) wrote jingles for Ford Motors.

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Finalist (Luke Ebbin) is a producer on Austalian Idol 1st place runner-up Shannon Noll's CD.

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Winner (Regie Hamm) is a co-writer on the new Clay Aiken CD.

2008 American Idol Songwriting Top 20 Winner (Regie Hamm) is a co-writer and personal friend of 2007 American Idol Songwriting Winner Scott Krippayne.