If Paula Abdul's upcoming reality show is anything like her life, it won't lack for drama.
The latest plot twist: a lawsuit involving, ahem, Abdul's upcoming reality show.
The breach-of-contract suit accuses the American Idol judge and a business partner of making a deal with Bravo for the planned series, Hey Paula!, while cutting out the production company that claims to have dreamed up and developed the concept.
The lawsuit, brought by Pilgrim Films and Television, was filed Feb. 1 in Los Angeles and first made public Tuesday by TMZ.
The complaint seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against further "misappropriation, exploitation and use of Hey Paula."
Abdul's publicist could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In the suit, Pilgrim, which produces shows such as American Chopper and Dirty Jobs, says it spent more than two years working with Abdul and her partner, David Russo, on a TV series.
At first, Pilgrim alleges in the suit, Abdul wanted to do a "generic standard talk show." Pilgrim claims it nudged the performer into "a more interesting and marketable hybrid talk/reality show concept."
When the "more interesting" show didn't sell, the suit says, Pilgrim scrapped the talk, and came up with a "reality-show concept" spotlighting "all the madness, frenzied and craziness of [Abdul's] activities."
In the sometimes harsh words of the suit, Abdul, 44, is described as a "household name" who, in addition to being an Idol star and former pop princess, "gained attention for problems in her personal life," including two failed marriages and an "alleged romantic relationship with an American Idol contestant."
In any case, Pilgrim's suit says it "coined the name" for Hey Paula (not to be confused, apparently, for the 1963 Paul and Paula hit, "Hey, Paula") and scored a deal with Oxygen.
Abdul put the brakes on the Oxygen deal in July 2006, the suit says, citing a need for "final editorial control."
Pilgrim alleges Abdul then "secretly shopped" Hey Paula to other producers and networks, eventually landing a deal with Bravo.
Bravo announced Hey Paula! last month. The cable network said the show would give "an inside perspective on [Abdul's] professional and personal life" and debut sometime later this year.
There was no word from Bravo Wednesday on how the Abdul lawsuit would affect, if at all, the production.
To TMZ, Abdul said the lawsuit was "baseless" and that the Bravo show was based on her life.
"Last I heard," Abdul told the Website, "I still own my own life."
For those on Abdul Idol watch, the judge who has been known to appear distracted and confused when confronted by technical difficulties was present and accounted for on Tuesday's San Antonio, Texas, audition show, watched by a gigantic but now typical 33.1 million.
In a bit of good and/or freaky timing, the episode featured a snippet of Frankie Laine's "Rawhide." Laine died earlier Tuesday at age 93.