via EW:
At long last, someone to tell Betty she’s beautiful!
Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul is in talks to guest star on Ugly Betty, sources confirm to me exclusively.
Details of Abdul’s role are being kept under wraps but an Ugly insider tells me that she’d be playing a new temp at Mode who bonds with Becki Newton’s Amanda.
If a deal can be made, this would mark Abdul’s first official post-Idol gig. (Her upcoming appearance on Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva was brokered before she twittered her resignation.)
At least Paula is working!


What a gig…she gave up Idol to make a bunch of guest appearances on shows, shows that will probably not give her half the amount of money Idol was offering. Whatever floats her boat…
I love Ugly Betty, and this sounds awesome. I hope a deal can be reached.
It would seem she is equally as irrelevant off Idol as she was on it.
Paula is going to wake up sometime in the next month and say to herself, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING!!!!!“
LMAO So true, Duke.
LOL mj! Could be fun to watch. Will she try to act?
AND NOW IT’S TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sure her guest appearance will be hilarious. Will definitely tune in to watch!
As for money, Paula left Idol because it was a matter of respect and equality in pay. Sure, she might not make as much money without Idol as they were offering her, but she’s a multi millionaire so whatever happens, it’s not like she’ll be hurting. And she’s been with Idol for 8 years– if I had been doing something that long, I’d want to get away from it and do something new, stretch a few creative muscles. I hope Paula has fun with this.
Not me!!! Idol 24/7 baby!!!
No, but seriously, when your music career ends and you get a second chance at super-stardom by being one of 3 judges on the most popular show in american television history, how do you say no to that? Oh wait, drugs…
Paula will be missed. (at least by me)
I agree. I wish her all the best.
I meant to also say how funny. Paula is the perfect one to let Betty know that she is beautiful. Paula is really good about stuff like that. lol.
I think this show is just quirky enough…er…or Paula is just quirky enough…to make this pairing work.
Pauler is gonna be fine on UB, but she’s still an idiot for not taking $4 million a year for getting to show up stoned/drunk/loopy (take your pick) and working 4-5 hours 2-3 days a week for a few months.
She had plenty of spare time to do other projects, but perhaps the demand wasn’t there. My guess is that the demand won’t be there year from now once the press has died down and she’ll be kicking herself.
Nah, she’ll just start to slowly increase her self-medicating habit and by then she will be so out of it she will be hallucinating that she is still on Idol.
Why? I’m not going to argue about whether the payment was fair or whether she was a diva or not, but quite simply– if she was feeling underappreciated and wasn’t enjoying being on the show anymore, why is she an idiot to refuse the job?
Life isn’t just numbers. If she doesn’t earn as much money after quitting Idol, it won’t really affect her standard of living, and if she’s emotionally better off doing new things– then why not?
and why are we still talking about this?
GO Paula yay. paula is not an idiot. she deserves some RESPECT. They can pay Simon $45m per yr, Ryan $15m per yr and they can’t give her $10m. It’s so clear they wanted her to go.
But it is about numbers. If she’d sign for more money, than its not about the job itself, it’s about how much she’s making. I think $5 mill (the most recent quote) is plenty for what she actually does for and on the show. My point was that her part is so minimal, she could always pursue other stuff at the same time if she needed a challenge or something new.
She did the show for eight years. She deserves a lot of admiration for that.
I think she left because of lack of respect (by not paying her near what they’re paying the others) and it was not about the money so much as the respect.
It’s great that she now has the time to do some different things. She probably has plenty of money and that is probably not her top concern.
I watch Ugly Betty and Drop Dead Diva so I will look forward to seeing her on those shows, as well as SYTYCD in some capacity. (I do think she can compete because she was never a ballroom dancer and has not been a professional dancer for years to speak of (as far as I know).) She would not be the first on the show who has had dance training but not ballroom. Many of the contestants were in that situation. Some were hiphop dancers, some were trained in ballet, etc. Kristi Yamaguchi had an advantage as a figure skater. And all the athletes as well as the entertainers have advantages in different ways. Paula would be fun as a contestant, however, I don’t know if she should do it so soon after leaving Idol, but what do I know?