*Lionel Richie secretly met with “American Idol” producers about joining the series reboot on ABC as a judge.
‘A.I.’ sources say that the executives think he’d be a great fit for the show, but producers will not negotiate with Richie until Ryan Seacrest’s hosting deal is done.
Seacrest wants somewhere between $10M and $15M, which producers reportedly agree too. But he also wants an executive producer title and ‘A.I.’ honchos are resisting.
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Richie is up for one of the two available judging chairs on the program, as singer Katy Perry scored a $25 million payday to join the music competition series, reports TMZ .
Meanwhile, Richie and Mariah Carey are teaming for a joint tour — one that he totally expects to be “camp city.”
“It’s going to be camp city,” Richie says. “And I told her, ‘Bring all the camp with you.’”
The Grammy and Oscar-winning singer-songwriter says he invited Carey on tour because of her discography of hits and diva antics.
“I wanted her to feel in her element,” Richie says. “And a diva has to do what a diva has to do.”
Their 22-show tour launches July 21 in Oakland, California. Richie postponed the tour’s start in February so he could recover from knee surgery.
“When you have been performing as long as I have it takes a toll on your body,” Richie said in a statement at the time. “Unfortunately, my recovery from a knee procedure will not have me 100 percent ready to start the tour next month. I don’t want to disappoint my fans, and I look forward to being back on stage so we can all be ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ together again.”
Live Nation released a statement explaining the rescheduling had to fit around the artists’ schedules.
“We had a small window between Lionel’s continued touring plans overseas in the fall and Mariah’s scheduled Las Vegas residency to fit as many dates as we could route,” the statement said.
