Twitter has been in the news a lot lately, or rather people have using Twitter to spread news, and now celebrities are quitting their jobs via Twitter. Paula Abdul, the eccentric co-judge on the US version of X-Factor, American Idol (although Simon Cowell maintains to Simon Fuller that they’re very different), has announced that she won’t be returning for a new series, and has used Twitter as her medium of choice.
Despite being on American Idol since the beginning, in 2002, Abdul abdicated her throne, Tweeting:
With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to Idol.
According to rumours, her departure hasn’t entirely for ‘creative’ reasons as Abdul has been negotiating her contract in recent months, wanting a pay rise from the $2 million she earns per series.
Abdul continued:
I’ll miss nuturing all the new talent, but most of all being part of a show that I helped from day one become an international phenomenon.
What I want to say most, is how much I appreciate the undying support and enormous love that you have showered upon me.
It truly has been breathtaking.
Could Twitter emerge as a new medium for submitting your resignation in writing to an employer? It’s certainly a very public way of doing so, and even if it’s not the right way to resign, it’s definitely a strong bargaining move on Abdul’s part as the public support she has generated shows how popular she is on the show.
If she is just using Twitter as a method of haggling over her contract, it could well backfire on her as Fox released a statement accepting her resignation:
Abdul had been an important part of the American Idol family over the last eight seasons, and we are saddened that she has decided not to return to the show.
Hopefully Paula knows what she is doing and she hasn’t just made one of those famous celebrity gaffs on Twitter.
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