People: Musically, she’s no longer idle
Paula Abdul is making a musical comeback after more than a decade on the sidelines.
“It’s really, really poignant for me to come back now,” Abdul said before her performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Abdul is featured on “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow,” the first single off the new album from fellow “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, due out next month.
She’s also started work on a new album, her first since 1995.
Abdul says an emergency plane landing in 1992 was a key reason why she abandoned her multiplatinum singing career.
“I had four plates and fourteen cervical spinal surgeries,” she said. “It all happened during the time that I disappeared and no one knew where I went.”
Abdul decided to return to music when Jackson asked her to be one of the artists on “Randy Jackson’s Musical Club, Vol. 1.”
“Everything felt right. The song was amazing,” said Abdul, who also did a video.
“I’m dancing – wait until to you see me. I’m doing things that you won’t believe, that I don’t even believe.”
New contract for McPhee
Katharine McPhee, the fifth-season “American Idol’ runner-up who recently lost her record deal, married actor boyfriend Nick Cokas over the weekend.
McPhee, 23, and Cokas, 42, met in 2005 when they were in an L.A. theater production of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” and he encouraged her to audition for “Idol.”
Fellow Season Five contestants Kellie Pickler and Mandisa were among the guests.
Deprivation for Chambers?
Justin Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” has received some real medical help.
Chambers, 37, checked in to UCLA Medical Center for three days last week “to get help with a pre-existing sleeping disorder.”
Finding justice
A man charged with a string of home invasion robberies in Hawaii in 2005 – including the holdup of “Lost” star Josh Holloway – has reached a plea agreement that will put him behind bars for 30 years.
Ruben Royce broke into Holloway’s home, threatened the actor and his wife, took their wallets and drove off in their Mercedes-Benz.
Life imitates … art?
Sylvester Stallone says his latest “Rambo” film and its tag line – “live for something, or die for nothing” – are inspiring real-life opponents of Myanmar’s military rulers.
“Students have now used this film as a rallying point and are using the quote, thinking maybe the American military will intervene and save them,” Stallone says.
“Rambo” has the title character trying to find missionaries captured by rampaging soldiers in the troubled Southeast Asian dictatorship.
The birthday bunch
Actor Stuart Damon is 71. Actress Charlotte Rampling is 62. Actress Barbara Hershey is 60. Actor-director Christopher Guest is 60. Actor-comedian Tim Meadows (“Saturday Night Live”) is 47. Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh is 46. Actress Laura Linney is 44. Singer Bobby Brown is 39. Country singer Sara Evans is 37. Actor Jeremy Sumpter (“Peter Pan”) is 19.