Suicide Idol's Brother, Friends Rip Paula Abdul

The brother of the Paula Abdul-obsessed "American Idol" reject who OD'd outside the star's LA home is blaming Abdul for crushing his sister's dreams and sending her on a downward spiral.

Paula Goodspeed, 30, had withered away to just 78 pounds at the sad end of her life, brought on by eating disorders and a broken Hollywood heart, her brother, Charles McIntyre, told The Post yesterday.

Although the grieving sibling disputed tentative police reports that Goodspeed committed suicide in her car, McIntyre said his sister's "Idol" tryout in 2005 crushed her dreams of stardom.

Goodspeed auditioned for Season 5 of the hit Fox reality show, and her train-wreck performance of "Proud Mary" brought jeers and cutting comments from the three "Idol" judges.

"[Abdul] didn't speak up for her. She let everyone take her down," McIntyre told The Post from his home in Maine.

"She [Abdul] said she was 'speechless,' when she could have said something in her defense."

Earlier in that "Idol" episode, Goodspeed showed off life-size drawings she had made of Abdul and professed her admiration for the former Laker Girl.

KEEP READING NY POST INTERVIEW

PLUS FROM THE NY DAILY NEWS:

A good friend has rushed to the defense of 30-year-old Paula Goodspeed, telling the Daily News that the aspiring singer wasn't a suicidal, "looney freakazoid" still obsessing over the mocking she received at her September 2005 "American Idol" audition.

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Instead, Goodspeed was upbeat and planning for the future when she last communicated with pal Brianna Schlanger less than 24 hours before cops recovered her body Tuesday.

"She sent me a text at 10:22 the night before about meeting for a latte and movie. She ended the message with a happy face," said Schlanger, a model from Reseda, Calif. "She seemed fine. Some

PLUS FROM PEOPLE, A DIFFERENT SIDE:

Last week, Paula Abdul got flowers with a note signed, "Love, J.T." and the message, "Hope you're doing great. Here's my new cell number."

Thinking they had come from her restaurateur boyfriend J.T. Torregiani, Abdul called him asking why he had changed his number, a source close to Abdul tells PEOPLE. When he said he hadn't, Abdul knew immediately who really sent them: ex-American Idol contestant Paula Goodspeed, according to the source....

Also, PEOPLE has learned, Goodspeed had changed her first name from Sandra to Paula.

Comments

[biskitdaddy]

To all you parents out there: stop telling your kids they're great at something when in reality they stink! That way, they won't have so far to fall when the real world catches up with them.

[GhostNyc]

COULDN"T AGREE MORE.... Part of life is working to find out what you are good at. Another part of life is sometimes LOSING and/or failing at something. That is how one build up resilience, that is how individuals learn to keep fighting and moving forward. Yes one day you will FAIL that test, you will LOSE the big game, and yes you will get your heart broken too. But you will also PASS many more tests, win many more games and fall in love a few more times too.

Blaming Paula Abdul for SOMEONE ELSE's mental health is crazy.

[peny]

Thank you. you said what I have been thinking since this train wreck of a show aired. Were are these people's loved ones? You need to teach your children they can do anything that can be accomplished by hard work....unfortunately singing is not one of those things you also need a natural ability to sing. These kids would be better served if their parents took the stars out of their eyes and had them focus on attainable goals that would give them a life long sense of self worth- not 15 minutes of fame.

[rektruax]

Modern schools don't help much. It's not as bad many say, but this endless self esteem parade should be reigned in a bit. Yes kids, you're special and unique... to your family and friends! The rest of the planet doesn't care. Nor should it frankly.

The world our children inherits is going to be a tough one. Tougher than ours I believe, and an inflated ego and exaggerated sense of self worth are going to be less than serving.

[WilliamProc]

Her brother makes it sound as though it would have been better if if Abdul and the rest of the bunch had let her continue thru the Idol process and axed her later! The woman had mental health issues and he wants celebs to be her enabler?!

He knew she was ill, and he thinks good therapy is American Idol. SICK!

[fleaba]

This sounds like a sort of mental illness issue to me, but don't know.

[mskayty]

Why on EARTH would Paula be responsible for that poor, unfortunate woman's death?! This woman knew doggone well what American Idol Auditions entail...it requires a modicum of TALENT. She had none.

Instead of blaming Paula (I'm personally not a huge fan of hers), they need to look back and see whether or not they did enough to help that woman. While they're pointing the litigious finger of blame, did it not escape these people that a grown assed woman in her 30's was dressing like a mentally challenged eight year old?!

[Changeling]

Yes. It's other people's fault when you have no talent, yet you fixate on "Hollywood stardom" instead of finding what you ARE good at.

[LoRiseAntlers]

Maybe these idiots will stop using the audition rounds of this show to degrade obviously mentally unstable people.

[Changeling]

Some of those people could use a touch of humilation.

Better a quick sting now than years of heartbreak as you spend 20 years trying to make something work that never will because your mommy and daddy and your so-called friends can't bring themselves to be honest with you.

Fact is that she had no talent and if her family really cared about her they'd have been straight with her. And certainly her mental instability wasn't a new thing. Where were they for that?

[rektruax]

"Some of those people could use a touch of humilation. "

Yeah... But from nasally Abdul, with her questionable pitch control and 1 and a half octave range and some limey whose claim to fame is...? The only judge qualified to critique anything musical is Randy.

I'm in complete agreement otherwise. Charity begins in the home. Be honest with yourself and family where skills are concerned. And if you really don't know just say so, and ask someone you trust who does. It could save a lot of heartbreak later.

[BandsofBlack]

Yes. But they won't stop unless people stop watching. They're giving the people what they want after all.

I stopped watching years ago because of that cruelty.

[msoverall]

Her family obviously wasn't worried about her when they let a HUGELY untalented person publicly audition for a TALENT show. Whatever happened to the word NO? Why are we so afraid to use it, your child will not pass out and die if you're honest with them about what they can or cannot do? They couldn't tell her to go sing a chorus where leader might not mind that she's slightly tone -deaf because her voice would get lost in a sea of voices? No, they encouraged her delusions and now want to blame someone else for it.

[Territc]

Firstly this was no child. This was a 27 year old grown woman. Secondly mentally unstable people should not be on the show in the first place and if they are, their family and friends are too blame. And if you can't sing, either spare us the pain or get ready to be degraded accordingly. I can't tell you the number of times I have cringed as people who can't sing, open thier mouths and proceed to torture me. I have wished that they judges would tell them off harshly so they get it into their thick heads that they cannot sing and stop listening to friends and family lie to them about their singing abilities.

[onlyred]

Sounds like her brother needs help too. Why is it that so many in our society cannot accept self-responsibility?

And.. where the heck was her brother and why wasn't he preventing her from auditioning where she ultimately made a laughingstock of herself? No one in her inner circle could be bothered to break it to her that singing was not her destiny?

[AmbivalentGuy]

"There is nothing more common than the desire to be remarkable."

But we're not - very few of us are. And our friends are not always the ones
who giv it to us straight.

[Sparty1]

Her brother sounds just as delusional as his sister. Why would Paula come to her defense if the lady couldn't sing? She didn't go on "Let Me Coddle You Even if You Can't Sing".

[lioness39]

Just another emotionally unstable person. Why blame it on Paula?

[avalanch112]

the fact that she sucked is not Paula's fault. she needed to know that she wasnt going to be a star. darwinisim wins again.