"I AM intelligent", protests Paula Abdul

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul said that being perceived as stupid was one of the most annoying misperceptions people have about her.

Abdul, 48, who returns to television next week with her own dance reality competition show, also insisted that she was naturally goofy and that her sometimes volatile public behavior was not the result of drugs or alcohol.

"I AM intelligent, I AM," Abdul told Julie Chen in an interview to be broadcast on "CBS Sunday Morning."

"But, people don't give you enough credit for having a brain," Chen replied, according to a transcript released on Thursday.

"Having a brain, that's a concept, yes, with Paula Abdul. I have a brain," Abdul said

Abdul was an "American Idol" judge for eight years before quitting the TV singing contest in 2009 in a contract dispute. Her often odd behavior on the show sparked rumors about drug taking.

But the dancer and singer told Chen; "I've never had a drinking problem. Even though I've been in this business for quite some time. I've never physically been drunk in my life. I've never been drunk in my life. I don't use recreational drugs. But, I am goofy."

"It's Paula. It is Paula. And, even the people on 'Idol' know that none of that existed, ever," she said.

Abdul's "Live to Dance" TV show starts on CBS on Jan 4.

Baritone from Harold Melvin & Blue Notes dies

PHILADELPHIA – Bernie Wilson, a baritone member of the rhythm and blues group that produced the 1972 hit "If You Don't Know Me by Now," has died.

Wilson, 64, died early Sunday at Kresson View Center in Voorhees, N.J., following a stroke and a heart attack, his cousin, Faith Peace-Mazzccua, said Monday.

Philadelphia International Records, the former record company for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, said Wilson's death leaves Lloyd Parks as the sole surviving member of the group's lineup at the time. The lineup also featured Teddy Pendergrass and Lawrence Brown.

The group produced a string of R&B hits in the '70s and helped define the Sound of Philadelphia.

"If You Don't Know Me by Now" topped the R&B charts and made the top five on the pop charts. The hits that followed included "I Miss You," "Bad Luck," "Wake up Everybody," and the dance track "The Love I Lost," which has been credited as one of the first disco records, according to an All Music Guide biography on the Billboard website.

"He left home at 16 as a pauper and came back home a millionaire," Peace-Mazzccua told The Associated Press.

She said her cousin kept performing until a few years ago and hoped to return and sing gospel music.

"Bernard was a very funny person. He should have been a comedian," she said. "He didn't take no stuff and he loved people."

Funeral arrangements were pending Monday.

Lynch promises prime `hissy fit' in new episode

NEW YORK – Actress Jane Lynch says her "Glee" character Sue Sylvester throws "a hissy fit the likes of which no one has seen before" when the show returns.

The Fox hit is on hiatus until a special post-Super Bowl episode on Feb. 6 that features guest shots from Gwyneth Paltrow and Katie Couric, and the students offering their version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," she said.

"It's got so much firepower," the Emmy-winning actress said. "There is so much going on in the show that is crazy and funny and wild. I have a hissy fit the likes of which no one has seen before, where I try to destroy the locker room and principal's office. I try to shoot one of my cheerleaders from a cannon."

Lynch talked about her show Thursday while promoting another project: an educational campaign on teenage mobile phone misuse that she is doing for LG Mobile Phones. She does a series of short videos about texting while driving, sexting, cyberbullying and other misuses of mobile phones by teenagers. The vignettes are available on YouTube and the company's website.

The videos are aimed at parents to get them talking with their children about these problems, and show parents how to set ground rules. Younger viewers familiar with Lynch's stern, slightly off-center depiction of Sylvester would likely enjoy them, too.

Before being called by IG, Lynch acknowledged being guilty of one of the habits she's being paid to discourage: She used to text while driving around California.

"I knew I should not be doing it," she said. "It was really just the luck of the Irish that kept me from hurting myself or somebody else."

Now she follows LG's advice to put the phone in the car's glove compartment. If she wants to talk or text, she'll pull over to the side of the road.

Out of the car, Lynch did receive a text message this week from one 81-year-old fan.

"Hi there!" her mom wrote. "I'm texting!

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Online:

http://www.LGTextEd.com

Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband glues own eye shut

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The husband of ailing Hollywood socialite and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was hospitalized after accidentally gluing one of his own eyes shut.

Gabor, 93, has been in and out of hospital in recent months. But this time, it was self-proclaimed Prince Frederic Von Anhalt who was rushed to hospital after he mistakenly picked up a bottle of nail glue he mistook for eye drops and sealed his eye shut, according to celebrity website TMZ.com.

The colorful 66-year-old German socialite underwent a procedure at a Beverly Hills clinic to unstick his eye. One of his representatives told TMZ he was in good spirits.

Just two months ago, von Anhalt -- who says he was adopted as an adult by a German princess -- was hospitalized for swallowing a bee while sunbathing in his backyard.

He has claimed to have fathered the daughter of late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith after her death in February 2007. Earlier this year, he launched a bid to become the next governor of California.

Von Anhalt is Gabor's ninth husband.

The elderly serial marrier, famous cop slapper and Hollywood star of yore had several health scares this year.

Gabor, who was left partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound after a 2002 car accident, was admitted to hospital last month after suffering painful swelling in her legs.

In July, the Hungarian-born actress and former beauty queen was hospitalized after falling and breaking her hip when she reached for a ringing phone while watching her favorite television show, "Jeopardy."

She underwent hip replacement surgery but suffered more complications, including a blood clot for which she had more surgery.

During another hospital stay in August, she called in a priest to administer last rites, then left the hospital a day later insisting she wanted to return at home.

"Inception," Johnny Depp hits with IMDB.com users

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Inception" really got into the minds of users at IMDB.com.

The movie database website on Monday released its annual list of top 25 films and top 25 stars of 2010, as determined by its users' search behavior, votes and rankings.

"Inception," the Leonardo DiCaprio sci-fi thriller that tells of a group of people who investigate corporate secrets by entering the minds of others, was picked as the top movie of 2010 by IMDB visitors.

Three cartoons filled out top five, including "Toy Story 3" at No. 2, "How to Train Your Dragon" at No. 4 and "Tangled" at No. 5. "The Social Network," a drama about the early days of Facebook, came in at No. 3.

Johnny Depp, in theaters this year with "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Tourist," was the top star.

"Our 100 million unique users every month give us a broad selection" on the list, said Colin Needham, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com-owned IMDB.

The kids action flick "Kick-Ass," which failed to deliver commercially on media hype and good reviews, ranked at No. 6.

"This is one way IMDB can help users discover films that they may not otherwise have known about," said Needham. "We are great at being able to highlight films for users independent of box office success."

Rounding out the top 10 were "Shutter Island" at No. 7; "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" at No. 8; another critically admired box office dud, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," at No. 9; and "The Town" at No. 10

The latest "Twilight" vampire film failed to make the list, but two of its stars -- Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson -- wound up at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on the chart of top 25 stars. Co-star Taylor Lautner was a lowly No. 14. DiCaprio was No. 4, and Brad Pitt No. 5.

Only two actresses made the top 10: Megan Fox at No. 9 and Zoe Saldana at No. 10. A full list can be found at www.imdb.com.

Simon Rattle leads 'Pelleas' in Met debut

NEW YORK – Add Simon Rattle to the list of eminent conductors who have made belated debuts at the Metropolitan Opera.

The British maestro, his trademark mop of frizzy white hair bobbing enthusiastically above the orchestra pit, led the company in a revival of Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" on Friday night.

Setting an unusually leisurely pace that stretched the performance, including intermissions, to more than four hours, Rattle drew some magnificent playing from the orchestra. The crystalline textures of Debussy's impressionistic score stood out with clarity and precision, and the dramatic tension grew steadily as the opera headed toward its tragic climax.

"Pelleas" is a one-of-a-kind work, adapted by Debussy from a play by Maurice Maeterlinck and written in the composer's style of ever-shifting chromaticism. The elusive score is perfectly suited to the story, a timeless, symbol-laden love triangle about unhappy people trapped in an ominous world of shadow and foreboding.

Most mysterious of all is Melisande, who in the opening scene is abandoned and weeping in a forest. She is found by the much older Golaud, a prince who marries her and brings her home, only to see her apparently fall in love with his half brother Pelleas, another figure of immense melancholy. Goaded by jealousy, Golaud kills Pelleas, and Melisande dies in childbirth, leaving her guilt-ridden husband uncertain whether she had been unfaithful.

For the opera to weave its fragile spell, it needs vocally and dramatically charismatic performers, and the Met production met that test in the three key roles.

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena, who is married to Rattle, captured the look of the lovely, doomed Melisande with her tall, willowy figure. She sang with haunting allure, especially in her unaccompanied song as she sits by her window combing her hair — though when she let it hang down, it was too short for Pelleas to caress as called for in the text.

With his strong, at times achingly beautiful baritone sound, Gerald Finley made Golaud's transition from tenderness to rage painful to witness. As the wistful Pelleas, baritone Stephane Degout radiated a diffident charm and sang with growing romantic fervor.

There was strong casting in supporting roles, from baritone Willard White as the men's grandfather, King Arkel; mezzo Felicity Palmer as their mother, Genevieve; and boy soprano Neel Ram Nagarajan as Golaud's son, Yniold. The latter plays a vital role in the opera's most disturbing scene, when the tormented Golaud lifts the boy up to Melisande's window and forces him to spy on her and Pelleas.

The production, by Jonathan Miller, updates the action from vaguely medieval times to an oppressively grand 19th-century manor house and gives us glimpses of numerous members of the household who aren't in the original libretto. Despite the use of a turntable for quick scene changes, there are seemingly unnecessary delays in both the first and third acts.

Whatever the longueurs of the evening, it was good to see the Met engage Rattle, who is chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic. Under general manager Peter Gelb, the company has opened its arms to a number of famous conductors who previously had not appeared at the house.

In 2008, Daniel Barenboim led performances of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." Last season, Riccardo Muti made his debut conducting a new production of Verdi's "Attila."

NBC Universal cable channel Syfy to make movies

LOS ANGELES – Syfy, the cable channel behind such series as "Warehouse 13" and the "Ghost Hunters" reality shows, is getting into the movie business.

The channel, part of NBC Universal, said Wednesday it will join with sister company Universal Pictures to release one to two films a year with budgets between $5 million and $25 million starting in 2012. The joint venture will be called Syfy Films.

The company will make movies in the science fiction, fantasy, supernatural and horror genres that are meant to be new franchises outside of ones that are already on television.

That means that it won't get involved in the "Battlestar Galactica" movie that is in development at Universal and which has "X-Men" director Bryan Singer set to direct. "Battlestar Galactica" was hugely popular on the Syfy channel from 2004 to 2009.

"First and foremost we're looking for new projects," said Syfy president Dave Howe. "A Bryan Singer blockbuster movie is not within the remit of this partnership."

Howe said there is plenty of opportunity to make sci-fi movies without resorting to huge budgets. He cited movies such as "District 9," "Cloverfield," "Paranormal Activity," and "Pan's Labyrinth," as models. "That's a level and quality of production values that is very achievable with what we're working with," he said.

Syfy Films will get a marketing push by having advertisements on the channel. Universal, which sold its horror label Rogue Pictures to financing partner Relativity Media LLC last year, will distribute the films.

Syfy is the second best-rated channel among the NBC Universal stable, behind only USA Network, and is distributed in 72 territories around the world.

Cable TV company Comcast Corp. is set to take 51 percent control of NBC Universal in a merger deal that is awaiting government approval. Current owner General Electric Co. would own a 49 percent stake in NBC Universal that will be gradually unwound.

Big Man Clarence Clemons is living in the future

NEW YORK – The Big Man has seen the future — and it features Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Saxophonist Clarence Clemons recorded a webcast this week with his longtime bandmates in Asbury Park, N.J. — just part of his current whirlwind of activities.

He's playing the national anthem on Sunday at the Jets-Miami Dolphins football game in New Jersey, then heads to a California show next week. He's also busy rooting on his nephew and fellow saxophonist, Jake Clemons.

In between it all, he was checked out this week by the Manhattan medical team overseeing his recovery from the back surgery he underwent nearly a year ago.

"It takes a village to run the Big Man — a village of doctors," Clemons told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "They all applauded me. I'm starting to feel better; I'm moving around a lot better."

A few days earlier, on Tuesday, he'd spent hours with the E Street Band, recording the performance at the historic Asbury Park Carousel House.

"We got the call a couple of weeks ago," said Clemons. "That's the way we always work. ... You get that call, you show up."

Some of the musicians hadn't been together for a year. But they seamlessly picked up where they left off, he says.

"Everybody looks fantastic. Wow!" said Clemons. "It's like we never left. It's always great to see each other — but we get right to work. ... We didn't get the chance to sit around and reminisce."

"The music was fantastic," said Clemons. "But I miss some of the guys who weren't there," including the late Danny Federici.

They played songs from "The Promise," a new album of works that date back to a very early chapter of their professional lives.

The music "tasted different; it's more refined," he says. It's "more adult" because of "all the experiences we've had; we've all grown a lot, musically."

"Every time we get together, it's all brand new," said Clemons. "Every time, Bruce comes back with something new and something different. I keep wondering: How high can he take it? ... How many times can he be reborn? I just want to keep on living so I can keep seeing the change."

Clemons, who turns 69 in January, insists that "the age thing is just a number." With each new year, he says with a laugh, "I'm going to be harder to handle."

Clemons deftly sidesteps questions about when the E Street Band might tour, saying simply, "We don't discuss that stuff."

"I just wait 'til it happens," he said. "We will see each other again. It will be fantastic."

During the football game Sunday, weather forecasters say it may be cold and rainy.

"It's the ultimate test of my love of music," jokes Clemons, a Florida resident. "I feel bad for the horn, out there in the cold."

"But we're hot together."

Van Dyke steps back in time for new stage show

LOS ANGELES – While some of his friends are golfing, 84-year-old stage and screen veteran Dick Van Dyke is mounting a new stage show.

"It is incredible," says the Tony- and Emmy-winning Van Dyke about what led up to "Dick Van Dyke — Step in Time! — A Musical Memoir." "I started out singing with these three young guys who approached me in a Starbucks one morning — these three 30-year olds who said, 'We understand you like to harmonize.' I said, 'Love, to.'"

Dubbing themselves "the Vantastix," the quartet started singing Tuesday nights at Van Dyke's house in Malibu. Then came benefit performances, including one at Westwood's Geffen Playhouse, which approached Van Dyke about doing a one-man show.

"I said, 'I'm not going up there on my own. No way,'" Van Dyke recalled in a recent interview, adding that he would consider the offer if he could do it with the three singers.

The four will step back in time to review Van Dyke's half-century career, which took off with his Tony-winning lead in the original Broadway cast of "Bye Bye Birdie." That lead him to the Emmy-winning "The Dick Van Dyke Show," as well as the film version of "Birdie" and Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins," the latter perhaps his most enduring work.

"I have my third generation of kids coming up to me saying, 'You're (his "Mary Poppins" character) Bert! You're Bert!'" Van Dyke said. "I've got to tell the story that I was in a market and a woman pointed me out to her daughter. 'Honey, that's the man who played Bert.' And she ran over to her little brother and said, 'I just met Bert's grandpa,'" he continued, laughing.

Following "Poppins," there were the big-screen "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," an Emmy-winning 1970s variety series, and the '90s TV series, "Diagnosis Murder."

"All I ever did was look for work," said the ever-fit-looking Van Dyke, who turns 85 on Monday. "And the things that happen to me prove that luck has so much to do, to be in the right place at the right time. I don't know how it happened, because I never had a career plan. I had kids. And I had to work. And everything just worked out so I not only had a comfortable living, I enjoyed every minute of it — and still am. This is my retirement."

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Online: http://www.geffenplayhouse.com

Katy Perry supreme as 'Divas' salutes troops

SAN DIEGO – Katy Perry loves a man in a uniform.

The pop superstar met dozens of service members while working on the special "VH1 Divas Salute the Troops" this weekend near San Diego.

"There was a kid who I met backstage who was rather chatty, but adorable," Perry recalled. "He was really sweet. He was 19. He had such a good heart. He said, 'Yes, ma'am' to me. 'Yes ma'am!' I was like, 'O.K.! Yes, sir!'"

A VH1 publicist estimated an audience of 27,000 attended the nearly three-hour taping of the concert Friday night at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar. The show, which airs Sunday night, features a bounty of what the network has dubbed "divas" — female or female-lead musical acts, including established stars such as Heart, Paramore and Sugarland, as well as hot newcomers Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Keri Hilson and Nicki Minaj.

But if one diva emerged supreme, it was Perry, who both opened and closed the show, and performed solo or with others on a half-dozen songs __ twice that of anyone else in the lineup.

"I really had to live up to the definition of a 'diva' in all senses of the word," Perry joked. "So, I had to be very difficult today, and late," she continued, adding that she was really neither.

Perry went on to reference Beyonce's song "Diva," then proceeded to lose the lyric. "Blaaah! Obviously I'm not Beyonce," Perry laughed. "She is the true diva."

Onstage, Perry pulled out the stops — and the costumes — with the opening number featuring Perry, Hilson and Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles in WAC uniforms for a cover of The Andrews Sisters' '40s classic "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."

Perry closed the show with her current smash "Firework," which concluded, appropriately, with a fireworks display. For that finale, Perry wore a cherry-red beaded gown with thigh-high slit that looked as if it was borrowed from Jessica Rabbit's closet. "You know me, I love vintage," Perry explained. "I love pinup girls. So, I tried to recreate that. I think any Army guy has a soft spot for a girl that can be painted on their plane."

Perry, 26, and her new husband, actor Russell Brand, will be spending their first holiday season together as husband and wife. "What do I want for Christmas? Well, I think what is appropriate now is, I hope the troops come home very safely," she replied, then delivered a message to service members.

"Be careful out there during the holidays," Perry told them. "Keep your Skype and your iChat on because I know some of them are away from all their family and wives. I can understand that feeling every once in awhile because I am on the battlefield myself, but I am just singing pop songs," she laughed.

"But, I am away from my hubby every once in awhile, and we use Skype and iChat and that really helps. So I just hope everybody can find a great Christmas and be blessed."

Bakula plays it single on 'Men of a Certain Age'

LOS ANGELES – Scott Bakula, husband and father of four, gets a kick out of portraying a feckless playboy at mid-life on TNT's "Men of a Certain Age."

"I don't hope and dream of that other lifestyle, but it's fun to play a character that's living it. I have friends who live it, and I'm happy to let them have it because it's not an easy road out there," said Bakula, who plays Terry on the series that also stars Ray Romano and Andre Braugher.

"It's a struggle for my friends trying to date younger women or find somebody to get married and have a baby," Bakula said.

When TNT's "Men of a Certain Age" returns Dec. 6 for its second season, Terry finds he's got decisions to confront about work, life and growing up as he turns 50.

He's making progress, Bakula said. Shelving his dreams of acting success, Terry is working at the car dealership managed by buddy Owen (Braugher) and trying to adjust to the daily grind.

Terry is "such a mess," Bakula said, but he's trying. A rekindled relationship even tests his womanizing ways.

Bakula, 56, whose credits include TV's "Quantum Leap" and "Star Trek: Enterprise" and the movie "The Informant!", is delighted to be part of a project that he says "felt a little risky." The three middle-age characters at its center aren't the demographic prized by youth-obsessed advertisers.

Romano's clout, the result of his hit CBS sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," is why it's on the air.

"A show like this doesn't get made unless somebody like Ray wants to do it," Bakula said.

He finds irony in its time slot, opposite "Monday Night Football," and notes that women make up a substantial part of the audience for "Men of a Certain Age."

Whether female viewers are looking for middle-age beefcake or insights into their own partners' psyches, Bakula is glad the show has cultivated a following. Bakula said he and his wife, actress Chelsea Field, enjoy watching it together.

Making the series is "just a blast. We laugh so much," he said of his fellow cast mates.

"Men of a Certain Age" may be a ground-breaker with an episode (the Jan. 10 series finale) that includes a boys-gone-wild Palm Springs getaway centered on Terry's 50th birthday — and colonoscopies for all.

A DVD with season one's 10 episodes was recently released, with bonuses including cast commentary, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

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Online:

http://www.tnt.tv