HOLLYWOOD -- Hmmm ... so Paula Abdul's new manager said that it's appearing unlikely she'll be back for American Idol's 9th season after contract negotiations stalled.
Seems she's demanding something like $20 million, but Idol's producers are only willing to shell out about half that much for her esteemed services.
Seems the news has sent her fans all a-Twitter, threatening to boycott the show if she's not back.
Seems like Kara DioGuardi should probably hold off on switching chairs, because it all sounds like standard operating procedure to us, when it comes to the melodramatic world of contract negotiations.
Abdul has been down this road before, and with auditions for the new season mere weeks away, it's no surprise that both sides are playing hardball.
It should also be no surprise to see them arriving at some sort of mutually satisfying arrangement before the month is out.
But should Idol opt not to call Abdul's bluff, just what would the former L.A. Laker girl be looking at in terms of career options?
Let's see ... there's her big recording comeback, with that long-threatened CD finally expected to drop before the end of the year.
Then again, judging from those two sneak previews -- Dance Like There's No Tomorrow (which ran out of breath after reaching #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) and [I'm Just] Here for the Music, which she performed "live" on Idol (or, rather, her synched lips were live), maybe not so much.
Well, if she no longer had her Idol bosses to answer to, then she could make good on her professed desire to be one of the celeb hoofers on Dancing with the Stars.
At one point earlier this year it was looking like a possibility until the Fox brass squelched the idea of her appearing on a rival network, even though both shows shoot under the same roof at CBS Television City.
But what if she were to take the plunge and discover that, at age 47, she could no longer dance like there's no tomorrow?
There's still her star-studded Forever Your Girl jewelry and fashion accessory collection.
She moved 35,000 pieces of the glittery trinkets back in May, in a two-day limited sale on Home Shopping Network, and she's due back again on July 31 with fresh goodies.
That sort of entrepreneurial spirit could put her in the same league as, say, Suzanne Somers, who has cleaned up on HSN with her own jewelry line.
And remember when Somers was written out of Three's Company after the show's producers balked at her contract demands.
Hey Paula, we're thinking you should take the offer.
