As we reported earlier here, Paula Abdul gave a strange critique on Jason Castro’s two performances during Tuesday’s American Idol…strange, because he had only done one of his performances. Her remarks made viewers wonder if she might be drunk, or if the show might be scripted–or both.

Now, American Idol producers are chalking up the odd evaluation to a last-minute format change, in which the judges were told to give the contestants comments on how to improve for their next song. Apparently, Paula was a bit thrown off by this change-up, and at first attributed her remarks as a mix-up with notes on another contestant. Now, it’s been revealed that her mixed up notes were actually ones she had written for Jason Castro…during the dress rehearsal! So while the singers’ performances weren’t completely new to the judges, we can now confirm that Paula is not actually psychic and seeing future performances.

Still, rumors were floating around that Paula might be let go for such an error, but American Idol producers nixed that idea; they even called her a “great team player”. And when you think about it, Paula’s quirky comments, like Simon Cowell’s snarky ones, add to the fun of the show (Randy’s comments…well, they aren’t quite as exciting). Every show needs a little bit of crazy, and Paula brings that. So Paula, keep doing what you do–we love a bit of unpredictability!

Down to its final four as of Wednesday night, “American Idol” is just a few weeks away from crowning its seventh winner. As exciting as that may seem, the standout moment of this season, as of yet at least (who knows what other crazy shenanigans are in store), has got to be Paula Abdul’s criticism of Jason Castro’s two performances Tuesday evening…

Wait, two songs? Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking and my mind worn after hours of studying for exams had me quickly pressing rewind on my TiVo searching for Castro’s second song. As I found myself at the beginning of the show, with no second Castro performance in sight, I was reminded that tired or not, my mind still trumped whatever Paula’s mental state was that evening. So just to clarify, there was NO second performance and basically, Paula was on something—yet again.

Let us all flashback to early last year, when Paula appeared on Seattle’s Fox Morning News to promote the upcoming season of “American Idol.”

It was of no surprise that soon after, she and Fox scrambled for a cover story, including but not limited to, medicinal drug usage to misunderstanding her use of humor amidst technical difficulties. Despite lack of any real evidence, we all, well at least I did, gave her a “Get out of jail free card.” Maybe, there was some legitimate excuse for her weird behavior…

But really what was I thinking, with the subsequent public breakdowns, weren’t we all expecting crazy Paula to come out again? Whether or not we wanted it, she came out full force this week.

Oh Paula, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.