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Corey Clark of 'Idol' won't aid Fox probehttp://www.philly.com/images/common/spacer.gif The former American Idol contestant who says he had an affair with judge Paula Abdul said yesterday that he won't help Fox investigate his allegations. Corey Clark made the allegations Wednesday night on ABC's PrimeTime Live. The 2003 contestant said Abdul coached him on song selection, helped buy him clothes to wear on TV, and eventually initiated a sexual relationship. He then appeared on ABC's Good Morning America. "I don't have any interest in helping American Idol out whatsoever, because they haven't helped me out whatsoever," Clark told ABC reporter John Quiñones yesterday. "They made it very hard for me to do what I'm doing, which is my career." Fox issued a statement saying that it had contacted Clark for his help investigating the allegations but that "that has yet to happen." "We have concerns about the motives behind last night's purported news special, as much of it was filled with rumor, speculation and assertions from a disqualified contestant who admitted during the special to telling lies," Fox said. "Regardless, we are absolutely committed to the fairness of this competition," the network said. "We take any accusation of this nature very seriously no matter their source and we have already begun looking into this." In a statement last week, an Abdul representative said she would not address Clark's "false statements." The representative called Clark "an admitted liar and opportunist who engages in unlawful activities." Clark, who recorded a song called "Paula-tics" and said he was in love with the former pop star nearly two decades his senior, ducked Quiñones' question about whether Abdul should be removed as a judge. "I don't know," he said. "I'm not attacking her at all. She just happens to be the key to getting this 900-pound gorilla off my back. "I think they should look at what I was trying to say, which was that she risked so much to help me avoid the exploitation of the machine called American Idol." The PrimeTime special, titled "Fallen Idol," was an unusual critical report by a TV network about a rival's hit show, and aired during a ratings sweeps month, which helps determine advertising rates. It ran a half-hour after the current edition of Idol sent home singer Scott Savol to reach its final four contestants. While seemingly under siege this season, Idol is still a hit with viewers - 23.8 million watched Tuesday night - heading to a May 24-25 finale. Fox noted that while judges could offer their opinions, the viewers eventually decide who wins. "We have gone to great lengths and great expense to create a voting system that is fair and reliable," Fox said. Clark reached the final 12 contestants in 2003 but was thrown off for failing to reveal an arrest record. PrimeTime showed how Clark, who was 22 at the time, serenaded Abdul during an audition, sauntering to the judge's table and kissing her on the hand. Later, he said, someone slipped him Abdul's phone numbers. He called, she sent a car to take him to her house, and they spent the night talking about how to get ahead in the game, he said. He later said that Abdul came up behind him one night and kissed him on the back of the neck, and that was the night their affair began. The network interviewed several former contestants who missed chances to be among the final 12 contestants the year Clark moved forward. "If these types of things are going on behind the scenes, there's really no point to American Idol," said one, Patrick Fortsen. Clark has written a book titled They Told Me to Tell the Truth, So... (The Sex, Lies, and Paulatics of One of America's Idols). It was made available online Wednesday one minute after PrimeTime went off the air. |