“American Idol” judge Simon Cowell came to Paula Abdul’s defense Saturday, defending his co-star against accusations of inebriation during recent media interviews.

“I’ve done those satellite interviews so many times and by the end of it I’m talking complete and utter rubbish,” Mr. Cowell said at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif. “I wouldn’t do this show if Randy and Paula weren’t on it. Don’t condemn them for being wacky on occasion. I don’t want to work with boring people.”

The “Idol” session started 45 minutes late, which caused critics to suspect Ms. Abdul might be to blame. Mr. Cowell took the blame, saying his flight from London was late.

Mr. Cowell said Ms. Abdul’s odd on-camera reference last year to moths, melons and cornflakes was his fault as well. He explained that he had just told Ms. Abdul a proverb using those terms during the commercial break.

Ms. Abdul thanked Mr. Cowell for taking the blame.

“You have caused me — you publicly apologized for that,” she said, and gave Mr. Cowell a kiss. “[Everybody was saying] ‘What’s wrong with Paula? She’s drunk, she’s drugged.'”

Regarding her satellite interview, Ms. Abdul blamed fatigue for her behavior.

“I did three hours of interviews,” she said. “The very last one I did had tremendous technical difficultly, there were split cities in my ear. It’s hard to explain and unfortunately that’s what happened.”

(Editor: Baumann)