American Idol judge Paula Abdul is being sued by a production company who claim they had a deal to make a reality show based on her life until she secretly sold it to another network.
According to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Pilgrim Films and Television (PFTV) met with Abdul and her producing partner David Russo in 2004.
At the meeting they discussed developing a talk show hosted by Abdul, but later decided to produce a reality show called Hey Paula based on her strange show-business life.
The lawsuit alleges the project fell through when Abdul demanded final editorial control of the show.
Representatives from PFTV claim they were trying to get the show back on track by selling it to the Oxygen network and were shocked when Abdul told them that “she had secretly taken PFTV’s Hey Paula project…to (rival network) Bravo.”
Last month Bravo announced the show would debut sometime this year on their network.
The suit asks for compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to an injunction prohibiting anyone from airing the show.
Abdul tells entertainment Web site TMZ.com, “While I’m not going to respond to this baseless lawsuit, I will say that Hey Paula is based upon my life and my ideas. Last I heard, I still own my own life.”
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