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.

Story continues below

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

[rini]

sad

[daedelus]

Everything that's wrong with America is contained in this story.

[EarthToZoey]

Eating disorder? Check.

Mental disorder? Check.

Obsession over celebrity? Check.

TV show that exploits people? Check.

Yep, that covers quite a bit.

[twokidsonecat]

Sadly, yes.

[rzan1]

That is it exactly.

[topkatnc]

The BLAME goes to the family or lack of one.

[SadieGirl]

Her family knew her best and saw the slippery slope she's been going down for 3 years and did nothing to help her. I think their guilt is the type in which they want to blame everyone else for their lack of taking any action to help her. They also want to cash in.

[marred]

Paula is no more to blame for this girl's death than the car companies are for the road death tolls we have each year. Plenty of young hopefuls get rejected by the judges and move on.

[Steamboater]

Right. Life ain't easy and it's full of rejections. That young woman had aspirations and fantasies she wasn't qualified to attain. What should the judges of that show have done, tell her she was wonderful and could achieve the heights of stardom? Ridiculous. Just going on that show you know that if you're up to par, you know very well that the sliongs and arrows wil be devastating. That woman should have been prepared, by her own homework and by her family.

[sugarlovenugget]

um i hate to break it to the dead girls friends and family, but if she changed her NAME to paula, sent her FLOWERS pretending they were from paula's bf, and was found dead outside of paula's home, that just SCREAMS that she was mentally unstable. and as for paula abdul being to blame in any way for this woman's downward spiral, she's not. they're just sad and looking to blame someone and it's easier to blame someone they don't know than to blame THEMSELVES for not knowing what was going on inside their loved ones' life.

i don't like american idol, i think it's a cult. but give me a break!

[Swedishgal]

I second that. I hate American Idol also. I just don't understand how people can obsess over that show. I don't watch any 'reality' shows.

[bluestateitch]

This is what I wondered about " American Idol" who told these people they were any good? Who in your family would say you were good if you really sucked? Isnt that just as cruel, to let a family member perform in front of people and get laughed at? If it was my brother I would certainly tell them ahead of time hey you arent any good. Who was the person pushing this girl to perform in front of millions? I would say they hold a big percentage of this blame. Plus the fact that she was mentally unstable.

[molsongrrrl]

I haven't watched American Idol in a long while - but the first couple of years when I did ... I asked that same question all the time. How could you let a friend or family member go to the auditions to make a complete idiot of themselves? Who tells these people they are talented or good singers? Sure, family and friends might figure the person won't get in front of the judges, but come on. Everyone should know by now that FOX and show's producers can't wait to throw the worst and most delusional singers on the air! Just a sad situation for the everyone. But blaming Paula Abdul for being critical during the auditions is ridiculous. That's her role on the show.

[rzan1]

She is the nicest of the judges. And I also think she has some sensitivity. I am sure she is really hurting over this woman's death even though she is not to blame.

[plzchuteme]

I was curious, so I went and watched the you tube video of the audition. Oh my! It was worse than I could have imagined. After watching and listening, I was surprised at how gentle the judges were. I'm not ready to let the producers or viewing public off the hook, but someone, somewhere, should have leveled with this woman. She should have never been put in that position. She was clearly delusional and troubled.

[Jason404]

Nearly everybody that auditions for the show is delusional

[crossoverwriter]

Don't blame Paula. That poor woman knew what she was getting into when she auditioned.
I hope she rests in peace, but her singing was awful.

[queotic]

Charles McIntrye is upset about his sister's suicide and is understandably looking for someone to blame. It's not Paula's fault though. Anyone who knows diddly-squat about American Idol knows that if you suck, you will get trashed. My heart goes out to their family.

[Slapmewhenitsover]

I have never watched the show, but I suppose this kind of thing was bound to happen.

Entertainers are mentally unstable as a group and ample evidence exists to support that comment.

While I do not find most of them entertaining, I do see how the insecure gravitate toward those professions, which means there will likely be no shortage of these stories until the end of days!

[sepiasiren]

Uhm--I am an entertainer, and I take issues with the above statement--while many performers have insecurities and problems ( I do have mine) so do many non performers, in fact, psychologists assert that nearly all of us have some some sort of disorder or two, not just musicians, singers artists, etc.,

[MoonsinLeo]

Can't anyone take responsibility for their own actions? Yeah, yeah, let's blame this unfortunate girl's suicide on Paula Abdul. Paula gave her an eating disorder and the myriad problems this person had. Good grief.

[aquarius2001]

OMG!! Look, I'm no fan of Paula Abdul (or the rest of the Idol judges for that matter), but blaming them for crushing this poor girl's dreams...and somehow trying to associate that with her suicide is ridiculous! Maybe the family ought to look at what they may or may not have done to have contributed to this girl's low self-esteem and self-coping mechanisms.

(don't mean to sound harsh, but that's the truth). People don't just live completely happy lives and then after one letdown decide to commit suicide. If so, her parents should of taught her a long time ago that life is full of both blessings and often disappointments...it's how you handle the disappointments, trials, and tribulations that make you stronger).

[Wirehedd]

diggin that aquarian

[totalliberal]

DAVID FINNIGAN and DAVID K. LI, of the Post knock on the grieving brothers door. "How do you you feel about Paula Abdul ignoring your sister".

Her brother. "Well, she could have maybe been a little more encouraging and stand up for her", he says between sobs.

Gleefully the intrepid duo skip back too the Post and write. "Goodspeed's Brother blames Paula Abdul".

With a snail-trail of slime behind them, they squish off too their local watering hole and have a drink over their latest expose of human misery.

Congrat's guys.

[doctorwang]

The NY Post- just one of Rupert Murdoch's many slime spewing media 'outlets'.

[shelsay]

i agree

[Clare53]

Well said totalliberal.

[lj9283]

The audition song that this woman preformed for the judges was disparately bad.

Both her family and her friends must have known how poor the performance would be, and from the history of the show shouldn't they have expected that the judges commentary would not be complementary?

Why didn't her friends and family intervene when she, a woman who could not sing, wanted to do a singing audition?
Weren't they close enough to her that they might be aware that rejection in that audition might "crush" her, and that the rejection should be expected?

I am sorry if this seems a bit cold, but it if my sister or friend was ill, and I knew that doing an "American Idol" audition would be disaster for them, and that that disaster would hurt them deeply, I would work very hard to discourage them from partaking.

[GerryS]

condolences to the family. let this be a lesson to everyone that puts all their eggs in the basket of being famous, at the altar of the TV realiy shows--------------------------------

[Garrett123]

T.V. sux