Randy Jackson Defends Paula's Odd Behavior

"Idol" Judge Says He Knows What A Long Day Of Interviews Can Feel Like

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NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2007 | by Amy Bonawitz

(CBS)  "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson spoke out about Paula Abdul's much-talked about satellite interview in which she acted strangely.

"It looks like one of those long days of like doing nothing but interviews," Jackson told Meredith Vieira on "Today." "And I mean, we go through those all the time on the press junkets … and it looks like she's just, it's the end of the day."

Paula Abdul blamed a technical glitch for why she sounded like she was out of it during a satellite interview with a Seattle TV station last week. At the beginning of the interview, she was asked by the TV reporters what she was looking forward to this season.

"How about a lot of you comin' in … it's a wild party where you are," she replied, which seemed to fall on deaf ears.

In the video, the "Idol" judge could be seen swaying from side to side, making odd faces, and laughing in a strange fashion.

But Abdul told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show that she was getting one TV station's questions in one ear and another in her other ear and that made it seem like she was in her "own little world."

Jackson said he too often feels disoriented after a long day of "Idol" auditions. "If you could see us at the end of the day in auditions … those 12 hour days, after 14 hours you're like ughhh."

The buzz on the Internet was that she was drunk, but Abdul says that's not her style. She says in all her years in the business she has never been seen "partying and whooping it up."

After much Internet talk about the segment, FOX supported the "Idol" judge in a statement given to TMZ on Monday.

"(Abdul) is a consummate professional who always gives 100% to everything she does. Last week, during a satellite press tour there were intermittent technical difficulties, including severe audio issues in which multiple stations were speaking to her at once," the statement said. "Rather than getting angry about these difficulties, or stopping the tour, Paula forged ahead and decided to have fun with the increasingly challenging situation. Unfortunately, because reporters and viewers were unaware of the situation, her humor was misconstrued."

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