COMEBACK KID PAULA ZINGS FALLEN IDOL SIMON COWELL
PAULA ABDUL was a “nervous wreck” during her American Idol comeback, insiders say — but the songbird was not so jittery she couldn’t brand her former co-judge Simon “Mr. Nasty” Cowell an “STD!”
Special guest Randy Jackson and trash-talker Cowell previously teamed with Paula in the 2000s to make the talent show the biggest hit on TV — and Abdul temporarily resumed her role after country crooner Luke Bryan tested positive for COVID-19.
But when Randy told Paula seeing her on the set “seems like old times,” the Forever Your Girl cutie blurted: “We’re just missing the STD!”
The remark caught host Ryan Seacrest off-guard as he held a computer device linking Abdul and Jackson, who was not physically present. Ryan exclaimed: “The what?!”
At that point Paula joked she meant it was an abbreviation for “Super Talented, Debonair,” not sexually transmitted disease.
The 58-year-old singerdancer also referred to Simon, who’s only three years her senior, as a “grandfather.”
While Paula seemed in the swing of things, joining the current Idol panel of Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, she was reportedly a bundle of nerves backstage before her April 12 comeback show.
“It was like she’d never done it before,” tattles a spy. “Her pals couldn’t believe it! They told her she had more experience judging than anyone out there!”
But fans mostly lauded the return of the unpredictable, ditzy beauty.
One tweets: “Only Paula Abdul can work in ‘We’re missing the STD’ on a family show on ABC.”
But even Paula was shocked by her big mouth. She later told Katy and Lionel: “I can’t believe I said that!”