Breakfast w/Greg: Bragman on Abdul; Butler quote sketchy; Adam Lambert’s love life; Roddick back on court

Good Morning!

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed a few missing Afternoon Greg columns this week and that is because I have been mulling over a few small tweaks as the site heads toward its six-month anniversary later this month. One of those changes is this: instead of wrapping up my blogging day with an afternoon column, I’ll be kicking it off with a morning round-up column called Breakfast w/Greg.

Here are the debut helpings:

ABDUL THE COCKROACH: I’ll be at the FOX presentation at the Television Summer Press Tour in Pasadena this morning and I am quite certain executives will be faced with a barrage of questions over Paula Abdul not returning for the next season of American Idol.

Her former publicist, Howard Bragman, offered up his take on her professional future in an interview with the Associated Press that puts her unlikely career longevity in  perspective:

“Don’t write Paula out,” Bragman said. “When the earth is destroyed, I am convinced that cockroaches and Paula Abdul will survive. … When Paula Abdul was a Laker Girl, she was the most famous Laker Girl ever. When she was a choreographer, she was the most famous choreographer ever. She became the No. 1 pop star and then she’s on the No. 1 TV show — and it’s remarkable, but she seems to have a quality and ability to rise from the ashes.”

THE NAKED TRUTH: It seems that the old quote allegedly from Gerard Butler indicating that he has had relationships with both men and w0men and that he is not gay or straight is probably a fake.

I linked to it a few days ago after it was posted on Queerty and by yesterday, it was on Towleroad and other gay sites. The quote was attributed to Movieline which was once a monthly magazine and is now an online site. The editors there did some digging and cannot find any evidence that the quote is authentic:

Where did this bombshell interview come from? Hmm, let’s see here… “Movieline.” Hey, that’s us! So is this thing the real deal, or the product of someone’s overactive imagination? Sorry kids, but this one’s most likely a fake. Archive.org traces the article’s origin to an NYCWave.com message board where author “Marianne Tydings” posted it in August 2004. (Try Googling the woman’s name — you’ll have no luck.)

Well, there is a bright side here: This wholer thing has given me an excuse to post this photo of Gerard in his swimsuit that I find quite fetching.

LAMBERT IN LOVE: Yeah, he may be a big singing star now and performing in different cities as part of the nationwide American Idol tour, but Adam Lambert says he and boyfriend Drake LaBry are still going strong.

The runner-up to the Idol crown tells E! Online’s Marc Malkin:”It’s going really well, it’s going just fine. We’re dealing with [being apart] just fine.

Adam, 27, added that he would, of course, like to spend more time with his 24-year-old boyfriend who he was with before Ido superstardom hit earlier this year: “I’m excited for the future when I’m in L.A. for more than, you know, a day. It’ll be nice.”

Lambert is on the Idol tour with winner Kris Allen and the rest of the show’s top 10 finishers. Allen has commented previously that Adam and Drake are a “cool combination,” because they’re so different. “Drake’s from Louisiana and Adam is from L.A.,” he says. “But they click well and they’re really nice together.”

RODDICK RETURNS: After losing an excruciatingly close Wimbledon final to Roger Federer last month, we found out that Andy Roddick had played at least part of the match with an injured hip flexor.

The injury kept the top=ranked American player – and world number five – out of competition until last night when he played his opening match at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington D.C. He faced off against Benjamin Becker and won easily by a score of 6-3, 6-2.

I’m rooting for Andy to win the U.S. Open which begins later this month in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. He was champion in 2003 and is long overdue for another win and, I think, is one of the three favorites along with five-time defending champion Roger Federer (the guy has to lose sometime, right?) and Britain’s Andy Murray who was last year’s runner up.

Go Andy!!!