A favorable judgment

PAULA ABDUL -- choreographer, pop star, “American Idol” judge and dog lover -- had to go to the bathroom before we talked, which made her a little late, and then. . . .

Sorry! I got stopped by two gentleman who wanted to take a picture.

As long as it’s not in the bathroom.

Oh, that’s happened. A fan leaned over and took a picture and I was mortified and she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

It’s a mad world.

It is. I honestly was weirded out by that and she was so nervous that she thought I wouldn’t even notice. And I was like no, no, that’s not cool. I said to her, “A real good tip: Don’t do that to anyone else.” The other weird thing is when people are standing right in front of you and they go, “That’s Paula Abdul!” Like you’re hard of hearing. I look over my shoulder. It’s scary.

And you’re, like, “I’m a person?”

I guess you become larger than life when you’re a personality, I suppose.

We all got an inside view at your life on “Hey Paula.” I thought the point of having assistants and staff was to make your life less chaotic and give you more time to sleep. Why doesn’t that work out?

Sleep deprivation is a really serious thing. Obviously we’re finding out with Heath Ledger, he was troubled with that. “Hey Paula” was not an accurate account of my life. It was an accurate account of a three-week period of filming “Hey Paula,” where I was wall to wall, back to back -- where I was the only one promoting “American Idol,” in a successful QVC run, on a schedule that was not allowing me to sleep. That was very troublesome. And troublesome in the area where it’s not me doing what my heart place is, my love.

Yes, I love being a business woman, but I’m an artist. And I flourish when I’m creating and I’m out there doing, performing. . . . I’m the kind of girl that I still to this day look at the glass half full. I trust people that their word is their word and you think you’d know better in this business. . . . I was raised that everyone starts at 100% and it’s up to them that their stock goes up or down.

You made some noise a while back about babies! What’s the deal? You gonna go it alone?

Someone misquoted me in USA Today. They asked me about kids and I said I love kids, and I said I thought I already would have had kids by now, but that’s not the life that I have right now. So can I do it alone? Absolutely. And that’s always an option. Except the biological clock -- that’s ticking! -- also becomes more of an option now with modern medicine. I’d like to have the option of having the father raise the kid as well. And right now, with my life? I still think about it.

I always planned to adopt even if I was able to have kids on my own. . . . It’s just, I wanna make sure that I’m really sound about the decision I make and it’s during the right time that I can properly raise the child. I’m the kind of girl that’s very young at heart, and healthy. . . . I’m a very maternal girl, as you can see on “American Idol.” But I’ve always been the same girl. I’m a girl that’s empathetic and passionate and everything that Simon’s not. Truth be told. But I will say this: Simon is really good with dogs! He loves my dogs. He French kisses my dogs.

Is it hard for you to date at this stage in life?

I don’t look at it as hard or impossible or easy. Dating’s never easy no matter who you are. I just tuned in for the first time to “Millionaire Matchmaker,” I guess it’s on Bravo, and I just could not believe it. There’s a service that gets beautiful women together for these guys -- that to me is just very weird. Watching it was uncomfortably weird for me. But God bless that woman who’s doing it -- there’s some relevant points she made.

Is there something we can learn from Taylor Hicks’ huge popularity on “American Idol” and subsequent lack of sales successes?

Nothing takes away from the talent that these kids have. The talent doesn’t go away. It’s sometimes mishandled and sometimes misguided. And there are very specific reasons why people like Kelly Clarkson sell a lot of albums, and Carrie Underwood -- and you have the unbelievable talent of Fantasia Barrino and Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks, that don’t get to have the same amount of sales. . . .

I think that you have to take the right time and the right producer and the right rollout and the right support. It’s not just based on they’re not talented -- there’s a lot of factors that go into it that people fail to realize. The right team, the right marketing strategy. . . .

According to Simon, he’d say it different: Taylor should never have won. He wasn’t a fan.

Are you an undecided voter?

You know, I would love to see a woman. You know, it’ll change the world, having a female president. . . .

There’s nothing weak about having empathy and compassion. Oh that’s a woman thing, that’s a female thing: Having that is strength. Women have the ability to take over when there’s major crisis and breakdown and a woman has the ability to think on a whole different perspective. From a heart place that is different. And she’s got it tough, you know. It’ll be interesting to see: This is probably one of the most important, if not the most important, elections ever.

And I love the fact that the amount of registered voters has really shown this time that there’s not that plea for “let’s stop the apathy.” . . . And I just wanna say one thing, because Randy kept poking his head in here: This is an exciting time for Randy and I. We did this with no one expecting it. We came from behind and no one -- it’s really fun when no one is anticipating anything and you come back from the holidays and yeah, there’s a single out [“Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow,” produced by Randy Jackson]. Have you heard it?

Yeah!

Do you like it?

[The slightest of pauses.] Yeah!

I put you on the spot!

You did!

Whether you like it or not, it’s got a hook that’s undeniable. And people start tapping when they hear it.

It sounds like it’s doing very well.

Knock on wood!

Oh come on, you’re not nervous.

You know what, this has been a total blessing. I’m not nervous at all, in the sense that I knew this song, as much as I knew “Straight Up” and also “Rush Rush,” I knew in my heart of hearts that this was gonna be a hit.

Why can’t the “American Idol” finale song be good? Can’t Linda Perry be hired to write it?

You’re preaching to the choir here. I totally agree. I don’t get it! I don’t get it! This time they had a contest. I dunno. Maybe they should allow more people to chime in on the decision-making factor. We have nothing to do with it.

I could keep asking you questions all day.

They opened the door.

Is there a line down the hall for you?

There’s such a line. No. I’m actually going room to room. But I guarantee you, I’ll never spend the amount of time with anyone else but you.