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After Paula Abdul’s stalker tragedy yesterday, I would think Sandra Bullock might be thanking her lucky stars. While one ended in an arrest, followed by three years of probation, the other ended in a death.

The news broke yesterday that a body had been found in front of Abdul’s house, and the longer it went on, the more bizarre it got. By the time we heard the last piece of news, the story was that an Abdul fan, Paula Goodspeed, who had once auditioned for American Idol, being panned by the judges, including Abdul, had been found dead in a car in front of Abdul’s house from an apparent suicide. Watching the video of the fan’s audition, it was oddly sad to remember it. I’m afraid to look back on past articles to see what I said about her. I don’t want to feel like I said something that hurt her feelings knowing now how it ended.

Today, Bullock’s stalker, Marcia Valentine, had her felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon dropped, as she plead guilty to a misdemeanor stalking charge, receiving three years probation. Valentine had allegedly visited Bullock’s house at least five times, leaving palm fronds with odd messages on them. Once Bullock’s husband, Jesse James from Monster Garage, went outside to get her license plate number, she cursed at him, then tried to run him over with her Mercedes.

It just all leaves me with a huge question of responsibility here. I don’t think anyone is truly responsible in the Bullock case. It’s not like Bullock is out there asking for this or doing things to suggest she would welcome this at her house. And while Abdul panning Goodspeed’s performance wasn’t wrong, as she clearly wasn’t cut out for the show she was auditioning for, perhaps Fox doesn’t need to make such a spectacle of the auditions.

It’s been a bone of contention with everyone for quite some time. Some people have been quite disgusted with the way Fox highlights the bad auditions, thinking it not only breeds more bad auditions, but also thinking that people are being made fun of somewhat cruelly. The other shows that have auditions don’t seem to make such fun of people, other than So You Think You Can Dance, another Fox show. Do they bare some responsibility? What about us? Do we bare some responsibility for it if we watch the show and laugh at them? Legally, of course not, but what about morally?

Regardless of any of that, both of these cases happened because the stalkers were disturbed. I’m reasonably sure that Bullock didn’t do anything to encourage the behavior, and I also don’t think Abdul really did either. Is it right to make fun of people for ratings? Not really, but should it be all it takes to get under someone’s skin to have them take their own lives? No. I think Goodspeed was disturbed long before she went on the show. But, perhaps in light of this, American Idol should tone down the bad auditions this year, otherwise it will look very shallow on their part.

It needs to be noted that Goodspeed’s brother has gone on record today saying his sister was not a stalker, nor was she obsessed. He states she was simply a fan since she was very young. He also claims she didn’t have any mental illness. I’ll let you, the readers, draw your own conclusions.

Photos Courtesy of people.com and oracle.net

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