PrimeTime Live - Fallen Idol: A Paula Affair

Quinones says they brought back seven other singers from that round (Hadas, Meosha Denton, Patrick Fortson, Nasheka Sidall, George Trice, Jordan Segundo, and Samantha Cohen). They said they had virtually no contact with the judges. Hadas says the judges would arrive about 20 minutes before work began. They say contact with judges outside the show is unthinkable. They don’t know that PrimeTime Live is going to suggest it was more "thinkable" than they thought.

Corey says Paula gave him an old cellphone so she could contact him. Quinones says a Sprint employee told him that he saw Paula and Corey come in the store to activate the phone. Two of Corey’s friends say they thought it was remarkable that Corey now had two cellphones – one Idol gives all its contestants, and one from Paula. One friend says whenever he was with Corey, there would be two or three occasions when the phone would ring. The other says he heard Paula’s voice clearly and, "it was wild!"

We are shown phone records that say Paula called "dozens" of times to Corey’s phone, with some pretty lengthy conversations. Corey says he was given money to shop at trendy clothing stores, bought him dozens of CDs to listen to, and even a bottle of cough syrup for his sore throat. The camera shows Paula Abdul’s name as the recipient on the bottle.

Corey says things started platonically, but became sexual later. On December 12, 2002, when Paula leaned over and kissed him in the car they were driving back to her house in the hills. "It was dope! I was like, wow!" Clark expands on his first kiss. Then, one night, while watching American Idol, "she came up behind me and, you know, starting kissing my neck." That was to be their sexual encounter.

"It turned into a relationship, you know, it’s like ‘I’m chillin’ with you,’ but you still can’t tell nobody."

"Can this possibly be true?" Quinones says to, voice full of urgent indignation, "A naive and perpetually broke young man of no fixed address who didn’t own a car or even a cellphone (the horror!), and yet he says he ‘chills’ with a wealthy superstar in a Beverly Hills mansion."

A brief retrospective of Paula’s career, and finally, some journalism: "Why should we believe you?" Quinones asks gently.

"You can or you don’t have to... at the end of the day, I’m not here to try to prove my case one way or the other, I’m just here to let people know what was really going down on my side of the fence."

Corey gives some details of the inside of Paula’s house, the guest room is usually where he slept when he was there. He knows the names of Paula’s three dogs, and says they often spent time in the jacuzzi, watching music videos on a television in that room.

Corey’s friends say Corey started bragging about his exploits with Paula, and that they met Paula with Corey at a club one night. They saw enough that night to believe what Corey was telling them. Corey also told his parents, Quinones says, almost immediately. Jan Clark was not happy, considering Paula’s age. Dwayne was concerned that Corey was in a competition while all this is going on, "I told him ‘get back to the music!’"

The Clarks were invited to the set that season, because Idol featured parents’ reactions that season. They met Paula Abdul in person, but they already knew her from the phone calls. They both say Paula called constantly. Jan says in a conversation with Paula, Abdul asked that they not mention her and Corey’s involvement if the tabloids should ask. Jan told her, "no problem."

Then, the Top 32 competition heats up. Paula helped Corey choose songs, he says, and they settled on "Foolish Heart." Quiniones notes the singer, Steve Perry, was in a band called Journey that Randy was a part of. (For ONE TOUR!) Why that song? Corey says Paula told him that Randy was a part of Journey, and that he would probably like that song.

Then, on to shopping at Fred Segal, and it was time to perform. We see a clip of Corey nailing "Foolish Heart" (he really nailed it), and Randy and Paula giving him a standing ovation when he was done. In his critique, Randy tells Corey he worked with Steve Perry, Corey says, "I didn’t know that!" Quinones says, "You were lying. You did know that." Corey admits he did.

Quinones says Corey was on his way to the Top 12, while 20 other "losers" were about to fade back into obscurity. Patrick Fortson shows he still has the star necklace Paula gave all of the Top 32 that year. Quinones teases that they are about to find out that one of their own was getting inside information.

Now, we see a clip of the Top 12, the first night of that segment of the competition. They, as a group, sing "(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life" and Corey is seen singing directly to Paula. She hugs him. Quinones notes the line "and I owe it all to you." Corey says he was expressing his love for Paula, definitely. (Julia DeMato was singing to Randy, but I don’t think she was expressing love necessarily.)

Back to those 20 "losers." Hadas and Nasheka say that it was devastating to lose. Nasheka says some people were almost suicidal. Again, Quinones teases that they are about to be told that Corey was getting coaching.

Nasheka says every decision is crucial. Having someone to tell guide them would have been great. Quinones offers that if a judge were to give that kind of help? Fortson says, "Then they would need to go out on the street and find the star they want. If that kind of thing is going on behind the scenes, there is no need for American Idol."