Paula Abdul officially announced her departure from the show

The 47-year-old entertainer tweeted,

“With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to Idol. I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day one become an international phenomenon.”

The song appears on “Randy Jackson’s Music Club Vol. 1,” the upcoming album from her fellow “American Idol” judge. It will also be available on Abdul’s own forthcoming album.

While the track has received warm reviews, the video made its official premiere yesterday and reportedly has Paula very upset.

“She doesn’t think it’s Heidi Montag-bad, but she’s still trying to pretend like it didn’t happen,” a source close to the entertainer tells MSNBC.com. “If Randy (Jackson) wasn’t involved, she’d be more vocal about it, but she does appreciate the fact that he was involved.”

Paula Abdul, a former choreographer and L.A. Laker Girl, is seen in the video performing the song in a sound stage surrounded by dancers working 1980s-style moves. Jackson plays bass in the band, also featured in the video, and “Idol’s” Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell make cameos at the end.

The singer’s publicist, David Brokaw, said that Abdul would still be appearing on ‘American Idol’ in the US tonight and the last programme in the current series tomorrow.

Brokaw said: “She’s a little sore but is doing fine.”

Speaking to the US TV show ‘Extra’, Abdul said that she had torn cartilage in her nose, fractured her toe and is bruised on her arm, chest, waist and hip.

Tulip was not hurt in the incident.
[Source]

The video – in which Abdul slurs and bizarrely gestures – emerged on YouTube on Thursday, prompting speculation alcohol or medication were to blame.

She subsequently abandoned media engagements scheduled for Friday.

However, Abdul’s spokesman Jeff Ballard insists tiredness and a minor throat infection, not inebriation, were the causes of the cancellations and earlier odd behavior.

He says, “She was exhausted. This was at the end of three days of press (interviews and appearances), and she has had cameras following her around for a reality TV show too.

“She never drinks. I have known Paula Abdul since she was 13, and I have never seen her drink ever in my life. And no, she is not on any kind of medication. She was a little tired.”

In 2005 Abdul revealed she suffers from a neurological disorder that causes chronic pain and requires a weekly injection of an anti-inflammatory drug. [Source]

Watch drunk Paula Abdul after the jump