Through the eyes of Paula

PAULA ABDUL is tired of “people not treating me like the gift that I am.”

So she is joining the ranks of Britney Spears, the late Anna Nicole Smith and Whitney Houston in allowing reality television cameras to follow her life for a Bravo series that premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday.

“Hey Paula” is the 45-year-old former pop star’s attempt to show that there is a lot more to her than what we see on “American Idol.” And it seems that indeed there is. In fact, a viewing of the first three showings of the seven-episode series reveals a tale of two Paulas.

Paula No. 1 is an effervescent, upbeat woman who sacrifices her sleep and personal life to design jewelry, clothing and her own perfume line, makes many public appearances and cracks herself up when she tells her entourage that she wishes she had asked Joan Rivers at the Grammys: “What plastic surgeon are you wearing?”

Paula No. 2 is an emotionally wrought insomniac who believes the world is against her: “Do you understand ... that I have been treated like a piece of dog ... ? That’s what I live with every single day.”

Since January, attempts by the Los Angeles Times to interview Abdul about her new show have been unsuccessful, mostly because she has fired her various publicists several times during that period. That left the people who worked with her on the reality series to explain why Abdul, who has arguably been overexposed throughout her “Idol” tenure, would possibly want to subject herself to more criticism or ridicule.

“I think that maybe Paula felt as though she wasn’t being portrayed accurately by the media,” said Cori Abraham, Bravo’s director of development and production, and the executive producer on the series. “I think she really wanted to show that she has many different sides to her, that she’s not just the person you see in the chair behind the Coke glass. And also not just a person who had issues -- like her satellite media tour.”

Ah, the satellite media tour. That was the January fiasco that left Abdul appearing to be drunk or drugged on national television as she did publicity for the sixth season of “Idol.” For these interviews, Abdul sat in a New York studio alone, fielding questions from Fox affiliates she heard through an earpiece. She could not see the anchors, but they and viewers could see her, and the zaniness that transpired was media fodder for weeks.

In addition to audio problems, which made Abdul mistakenly answer questions from one affiliate to a different affiliate, she was fidgety and loopy, making viewers wonder what was wrong with her. Once the video hit YouTube, it was a full-fledged scandal that left Abdul defending herself wherever she went. The Bravo cameras captured it all (Episodes 2 and 3), including the fact that Abdul was not sitting in a swivel chair, which she had claimed was responsible for her “dancing” in her seat.

Still, Abraham believes the footage will make Americans more sympathetic toward the softest “Idol” judge.

“They will be able to see it from her perspective,” Abraham said. “Which is the beauty of the show. Not only are we fly-on-the-wall witnessing it, but it’s also told from Paula’s point of view.... All of that stuff culminated in this very early morning satellite tour where she really tried to push her energy up, and it goes too far. And there were also technical issues.”

On the whole, “Hey Paula” will “show that there’s a beginning, middle and end to every single thing that happens, and there are repercussions to everything that happens,” Abraham added. “And she’s human and she’s not unbreakable, and she has feelings and things affect her. And she’s very relatable. It was important for her to get that message out. That she’s really like any other girl that’s fighting hard to be a businesswoman and be successful and has had major success and has had some bumpy roads as well.”

Abdul pitched her series to several networks, but Bravo immediately took to the idea because “it felt like a perfect fit to what our network is all about, which is showing the creative process and show what makes artists tick,” said Frances Berwick, executive vice president of programming and production.

“She’s a huge icon and an incredibly successful artist, but because she’s most famous recently for ‘American Idol,’ the public has a very one-dimensional perception of who she is.”

Will that change once the viewers have spent seven half-hours with Abdul? Television critics are calling the series everything from a “dull trainwreck” to “train-wreck-tastic.”

Now, you be the judge.

maria.elena.fernandez@latimes.com