Yesterday morning a stalker was found dead in a car outside of Paula Abdul’s house. It turns out she is a failed contestant on America Idol, who committed suicide in her vehicle. It was not the first time police had been called to the house when the woman’s car was parked outside.
The former American Idol hopeful found dead in an apparent suicide near Paula Abdul’s home had been causing “a disturbance” there for several years, LAPD Capt. James Miller tells People.
“Our station has been called to respond to Paula Abdul’s house on multiple occasions over the last several years concerning Ms. Goodspeed,” Miller says. “The last time our officers had contact with Goodspeed was in July.”
There were no court records of a restraining order against Goodspeed.
“I can’t say whether Ms. Abdul was directly harassed,” Miller adds. “Ms. Goodspeed had been causing enough of a disturbance [to have police called].”
People have found the video of her audition, which was panned. The show featured an interview with Paula Goodspeed, who says that she is a huge fan of Paula Abdul and has been making life size drawings of her since she was a child, saying ‘my first drawing was of Paula Abdul’. Leading up to the audition there was a feature piece on her, and the judges were pleasant and chatty, commenting on her similarities in appearance to Judge Paula. The judges appeared to enjoy the audition, before tearing apart her (admittedly less than fabulous) singing. They then made juvenile comments about her braces.
Obviously Goodspeed was quite upset about the audition as she blogged about it on her myspace months later.
“It’s very hard reading such awful things being written about yourself…..or hearing things being said….. not like alot of people would understand what it’s like having so many haters,” she wrote, “just because I made the mistake of trying out for a singing competition before I was even ready vocally, emotionally and physically.”
She added: “I have to believe there is something good about me.”
Paula has made a statement to the Goodspeed family. She is currently away filming American Idol.
“I am deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday,” Abdul said in a statement released by her publicist, Jeff Ballard. “My heart and prayers go out to her family.”
Some sort of follow-up assistance should be made available to people featured on television. Some people who are already emotionally frail who may be pushed over the edge by the sudden notoriety.
“Some sort of follow-up assistance should be made available to people featured on television. Some people who are already emotionally frail who may be pushed over the edge by the sudden notoriety.”
You think? I always wondered if any of the folks who get royally panned and then shown on TV wound up with some major issues; or more likely the issues were there and exacerbated by the show’s treatment of them. Of course liability releases were probably obtained by A.I. so they’re in the clear.
The drawings etc. by Ms. Goodspeed should have been a major clue.
Oh that is sad – I remember that audition. Poor woman and her poor family.
This is really sad. Do think the producers of these shows have to take a more responsible line when it comes to the ‘entertainment’ angle. Now I love the bad auditions as much as anyone else, easily the most entertaining parts of these shows, but too many times they’ve featured people that are disturbed and emotionally fragile and should never have been green-lit to audition.
A firmer hand at the outset is what’s needed. It won’t be a cure-all, vulnerable people will still slip through but it would be a step in the right direction. All the warning signs were there for this girl and an outcome like this is just too high a price to pay for entertainment.
This is tragic.
They are overly rude to the contestants on the show.
Could this be why the ratings are so high? Is this what the public wants to see? Would the show do as well if they were nothing but nice to the contestants? I doubt it.
This show makes millions hand over fist, it seems feasible for the show to pay several counselors to talk to the bummed out contestants after the auditions to make sure they are ok. Just a thought.
Oh that poor, poor girl. How does a lifetime of mental illness, a lifetime of obsession with someone else, get left untreated?
You could argue this about any part of the entertainment industry. The kind of people who are that desperate for attention to want to be famous are also the ones likely to be too emotionally vulnerable to cope with honest feedback, Y/N?
Poor girl but COME ON, what on earth are these kind of people thinking of when they go to these ‘talent’ shows. They are just horrible and completely talentless, like when you get very old and very unattractive looking people WTF and I am sure some of them know this about themselves deep down that they should not be there in the first place and I always thought most of these contestants just go on for the 5 seconds of fame and to just have fun but it is scary to think that some people can actually be so delusional.
The fact that some of them think they’ve got what it takes when they plainly shouldn’t even be let out on their own is what should be nipped in the bud BEFORE the audition stage. AI and X-Factor are not responsible for these people’s delusions but by giving them a platform, they ARE feeding their irrational fantasies.
“This show makes millions hand over fist, it seems feasible for the show to pay several counselors to talk to the bummed out contestants after the auditions to make sure they are ok. Just a thought.”
Just a bad thought, IMO. If her own family didn’t bother/was unable to save her from herself, why on earth would a TV show be expected to shoulder that responsibility?
It’s very sad that this girl had such obvious mental problems, but that can’t be blamed on some TV show. The blame, if there is any, belongs to the people in her sphere–family, friends, etc. THEY would be the ones to look at…why was she not in treatment?
One final thought, as well-her family may have tried to get her into psychaitric care, but the current laws make that very difficult.
I work for a hospital, and there is a particular mentally ill patient (who also has serious medical problems, so we have to treat her), who is so sick that she cannot call 911 anymore (she called—several thousands of times—for no reason). She calls the hospital constantly trying to get ahold of doctors. She stalked one doctor to the point that he moved his family to another state.
Do you think she was committed? Nope. We took her to court many, many times and had no problem having her put in jail…but forcing her to get treatment for her obvious mental illness was somehow considered a violation of her rights. So, she gets arrested, does 90 days, gets out and starts the entire cycle all over again. It has been going on for years, and will probably continue until she dies, because the law will punish her for her crimes, but won’t allow us to treat her for the underlying reason for those crimes.
So, don’t be too quick to judge…it’s a complicated world when it comes to mental illness.
what are they supposed to do? give a psych eval to every contestant of shows where they might have to face criticism? thats the point of the shows. if they cant handle it they have no business showing up. this is a very isolated case-most suffer the humiliation and move on, albeit with bruised egos (which isnt necessarily a bad thing in this day and age of too much constant positive reinforcement and a generation of entitled people) and dont go psychotic and kill themselves. the woman was clealy off-kilter during the audition-fake breasts (which signals to me low self-esteem and body image problems) underweight (body image and obvious drug use) the braces thing, the hyper jittery thing-she’s been messed up for a lot longer than when her audition started.
Bros – agree. All I’m saying is that if I, as a viewer, can see something very troubling on the screen without ever coming into contact with someone, those who vet and actually see these people in person and talk to them beforehand should be able to see what I’m seeing and take a firmer stance. It probably wouldn’t have helped here though.
Yeah… I think the only thing that the AI people COULD have controlled is their criticisms. Even though it is sometimes funny, they really do cross the line when criticizing the auditions.
Probably Ms. Goodspeed was already on the road to suicide, and *something* would have triggered it, even if she had never auditioned for AI.
“Admittedly less than fabulous singing”?
Her ‘singing’ was really, really bad… more akin to yelling, really. But the judges [particularly Simon, as usual] could’ve been nicer.
So very sad and pointless. These reality shows don’t help, they only feed this mental illness that people come to believe they need fame and public adulation in order to happy productive people.
@ embertine
No. It’s very obvious when you see this crappy ass show that there are several people who are vulnerable & too emotional as you say to come out in the show. If we can see it through a screen then they can see it in person. They have to let everyone audition but they dont have to air it on tv. They could have told this girl you cant sing goodbye go home but they didnt have to make fun of her appearance & attack her personally.
For goodness sake look at them!
I hate to say it, but really, if you sign up for a show like AI, you know what’s coming to you, especially for a show that’s been around for 10+ seasons. So I really don’t think it is AI’s responsibility to “play nice” or give psych evals to its contestants; I think it’s the job of contestants and their families to seek help when needed.
The way they use these people and discard with no regard for their feelings is truly sick – especially when you think of the millions of dollars the judges are paid. Why not stop watching?
Obviously this woman had other issues not related to the show but I’m sure the last thing she needed was to be berated on television.
Lauri:
“Just a bad thought, IMO. If her own family didn’t bother/was unable to save her from herself, why on earth would a TV show be expected to shoulder that responsibility?” – BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAS TO & OBVIOUSLY HER FAMILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO DO THAT. OR PERHAPS THEY ARE NOT AROUND??
I think counsellors at the auditions would be an EXCELLENT idea. If people are ill, and they (or their families) choose not to seek help for it, and then they come on a show like Idol- if there were councellors there they would at least get that LITTLE bit of extra help that might make just that little bit of difference. Who knows, maybe it would inspire them to actually seek help outside of the audition councellors. You can’t put all the responsibility on someone’s family – a lot of mentally ill people alienate their families… would have thought as a mental health worker you’d realize that.
And you know what else? Is somebody is delusional enough to think that they had a chance on a show like idol, when they aren’t singing but yelling or screeching… OBVIOUSLY something is not right. People should have picked up on this before she went on TV.
I feel so sad for that poor woman and her family. I’m also sad for Paula Abdul…who has to live with the “what if I had just’s” for the rest of her life, even though she is totally blameless in this. Even if she had fostered friendship or tried to actively help this woman (which would’ve been INSANE on Abdul’s part given the victim’s stalking behaviors), it does not follow that the lady would’ve sought treatment or gotten any help.
What I find disturbing is the feeling we all seem to have as a society that someone should be responsible for this kind of thing when it happens.
Not everything can be fixed. Not every accident has a cause that allows us to point blame at a particular person.
People used to accept this. We all understood, once upon a time, that sometimes bad things happen and when they do, we just have to sit with that sadness and process it. We all used to understand that people are responsible for their own health and their own actions.
IF this lady was so insane that she was beyond controlling herself, then that is a tragedy. It is not because of a reality show that she did this. If Simon had been kinder, she would still likely have ended up where she is today via some other obsession that fell through.
The idea that ANYONE is at fault or responsible for this girl’s death is preposterous. The implication that you can prevent situations like this by making uninterested third parties provide mental health services (which they could not legally force on anyone and, therefore, would be useless) is also preposterous.
This was a tragedy…and sometimes, a tragedy is “just” a tragedy. It’s harder to swallow sad things when you accept that there was nothing anyone could’ve done differently to control it or change the outcome. In this case, however, it’s really the only healthy way to view it, in my opinion.
It’s a very complex issue. AI can’t have every person who steps in front of the camera see a shrink. Not all of the “crazy” people on AI are actually crazy. Some people go on there and act a fool just to get on TV.
Her family was on the insider saying she wasn’t a stalker. I know people don’t want to speak ill of the dead but sometimes you have to tell the truth or just be quiet. I just wish she would have gotten more help.
I agree that you cannot make the judges or the TV show responsible for all the kooks who end up auditioning for the show.
As someone said, mental illness is so complex we can’t even begin to scratch the surface. It is a never-ending circle and circus in some cases, that some people deal with all their lives. They do fine on meds, but they won’t commit to taking them, or they start feeling better, so they dump the meds, then it starts all over again. AND, because they’re mentally ill, they don’t understand just how much they truly need to be controlled by meds, therapy, etc.
It’s no one’s fault that this woman, who was clearly over 18, chose to stalk Paula, sit in her car for hours on end, days on days, then finally do herself in. Who can stop those demonic voices in someone’s head, if that person chooses not to get help? And who even KNOWS what that person could be going through if he/she doesn’t share that?
You certainly can’t see that from a 3 minute audition. Especially when there are SO many people who come there just to be seen/heard and dress up purposely like clowns just for that time. For all they knew, she wanted to be laughed at, so she could have even more attention on camera. There HAVE been cases of people who’ve done that, and have even been invited back for the finale!
I agree it’s a sick and twisted world out there, where we throw innocent people to the lions. But how can we week out thousands of people to tell who is genuinely well, and who isn’t??