American Idol judge Paula Abdul lost her balance while trying to avoid stepping on her pet chihuahua at home and fell, breaking her nose and toe.Abdul, 44, known for her sometimes odd behaviour on the smash hit TV show, was left bruised and sore by Saturday's accident, but she will appear as scheduled on the final two episodes of this season's singing talent contest, spokesman David Brokaw said.
In a string of interviews to promote the Fox network's upcoming Idol finale, Abdul's injuries were hardly noticeable, thanks to Make-up.
"If you didn't know better, you wouldn't know she had gone through anything," Brokaw said. "She's uncomfortable, but she looked great."
Abdul, a onetime professional cheerleader who gained fame in the late 1980s as a pop singer of such hits as Straight Up, talked about her weekend mishap during an appearance on the syndicated celebrity TV show Extra.
"I took a nasty fall ... trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm ... my chest, my waist, all the way down to my hip. All for my little chubby Tulip," she said. "The dog, I saw her ... I just remember saying, 'Oh my God, I'm going to do a face plant.'"
The pain was so bad, "I screamed like a little baby would scream," she recounted.
Tulip was unscathed in the accident, Brokaw said.
Abdul, who has raised eyebrows for her periodically quirky, emotional demeanour on American Idol, made headlines in January when a video surfaced of her slurring and gesticulating her way through a promotional TV appearance.
But her sunny disposition has proved the perfect counterpoint to the acerbic style of fellow judge Simon Cowell, and Fox executives credit her with much of the show's success.
Idol ranks as the most watched series on US television.