Pining for Paula
Entertainer Abdul's visit creates mob scene

Paula Abdul shakes hands with enthusiastic fans hoping to meet the star before an autograph and photo session Saturday afternoon in Gallup. Some of Abdul's fans were not able to meet her because of her scheduled departure at 6 p.m. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

Paula Abdul interacts with Justin Abeita, one of several hundred people who turned out to see the entertainer Saturday. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

GALLUP — Area residents came out in force Saturday to meet and greet "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that way too many area residents came out to meet and greet Abdul and her appearance a local department store quickly became, as one person described it, a "mob scene."

Mary Ann Armijo, manager of the local Clear Channel stations, was asked by KASA Fox of Albuquerque and Direct TV to coordinate the appearance. She estimated that 2,000 people crowded the aisles of Wal-Mart hoping for a chance to see Abdul and get her autograph.

A lot of those who came went away unhappy as Abdul, who was only committed to stay at the store for two hours, was only able to make a dent in posing for photos and supplying autographs to all of those who came to see her.

She was there as a promotion set up by Direct-TV which promised to have a Fox TV star (no names given) go to the community where the most Direct-TV hookups were purchased during February and March.

Gallup easily won the contest, beating big cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, leading a Direct-TV spokesman here Saturday to remark that he wasn't surprised since Direct-TV's primary market is in the nation's rural areas where reception of regular television is spotty.

Abdul, who spoke to the press in the lobby of El Rancho Hotel before going to the store for the signing, was the star who was chosen.

Talking to The Independent, she said that she has been doing a large number of promotional meetings in the past three years because of "American Idol" and her various sidelines, such as her jewelry line, but no one was prepared for the reception she found when she arrived at the store.

People were packed into almost every aisle and shopping for Saturday usually the busiest day for the store was almost impossible.

She arrived about 4:20 p.m. for the signing and then spent almost a half an hour meeting with employees of the store and posing for photos and signing autographs for them.

She started with the crowd at 4:45 p.m. and soon realized that there was no way she would be able to give everyone there a moment of her time.

At various times, she stood on a counter and talked to the crowd, thanking them for coming but she soon gave up on autographs and devoted her time to posing for photos.

People who brought in albums from the days when she was a recording star were taken aside and she tried to sign them during breaks in the photo shoots but at the most, according to people who were there, she probably only had a chance to meet and greet less than a tenth of the crowd by 6 p.m. when she was scheduled to leave.

Turning pale
At one point, said Armijo, she told her security personnel that she wanted to go into the crowd but within a few feet, she was surrounded and her security personnel had a hard time getting her back to the counter area.

Armijo said Abdul turned "pale white" when she saw the crowds converging on her.

At 6 p.m. when she was leaving, some members of the crowd started booing her because they had been waiting for five or more hours for a chance to get her autograph; however, Armijo said Abdul had no choice but to leave since the jet provided by Direct-TV was scheduled to leave about 7 p.m.

If she had another chance to do this, Armijo said she would do it differently.

Instead of inviting everyone to come by and get autographs, she said she would hold contests and limit who got autographs to just the 600 or 700 who won the contest.

Armijo said Abdul was gracious throughout the ordeal but it was obvious toward the end that she was getting tired.

She was also gracious during the meeting with the press at El Rancho earlier in the afternoon.

Only about 40 people showed up for that people connected with the media and friends and relatives of the sponsors.

Armijo said she tried to keep that as secret as possible because of fears there would have been a mob scene there as well if the news had leaked out that she was going to be there.

While at El Rancho, area press representatives each got a few minutes with her to talk about whatever they wanted (except for that controversy that has been in the news regarding a former contestant who claimed to have had an affair with her the press was told she would not answer questions on that subject).

During the interview with The Independent, she was asked if she had ever been to Gallup before, and she said she remembers being here several times, stopping off at local restaurants to eat on her drives between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, where she owned a home in the early '90s.

She said she remembered the kindness of the people she met here when she stopped over and always enjoyed stopping over in Gallup.

She also talked about "American Idol," a show now in its fourth season and the top-rated show on television.

When she arrived at El Rancho, she was greeted by Mayor Bob Rosebrough, who presented her with two pieces of Indian jewelry donated by Stoneweaver, Inc., a local Indian arts and crafts store.

Rosebrough brought his two youngest daughters to the event, both of whom said they were "American Idol" fans. Rosebrough said he caught the show as well when it got near the end of the competition, but admitted that he watched it more for "the banter of the judges" than for the music itself.

But Abdul, during her interview, said the show has taken on a life of its own throughout America as young people all over the country dream of one day becoming a singing sensation and winning the competition.

Impromptu auditions
She said it's common when she makes publicity tours to have young people come up to her and start singing and she remarks about their wonderful voice, only to be told that they auditioned and were rejected by the production crews before they had a chance to go before Abdul and the other two judges.

The show now gets several hundred thousand people a season coming to the auditions and Abdul said that what happens is that production assistants listen to everyone and then make a selection who will go on to be heard by Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Crowell.

"What we get are who they think are the absolute worst and best," she said.

Many people who have potential may fall through the cracks, but there's no way around this since it would be impossible for three people to be able to audition everyone, she said.