The new troika: Paula Abdul, Adam Lambert and Snoop

Paula Abdul sported a black church lady hat and Adam Lambert rocked a skinny bow tie, but it was Snoop Dogg who elicited catcalls from the media when he strolled into the Beverly Hills press conference to announce nominees for the 2009 American Music Awards. The rapper had traded in his signature football jersey and braids for a vest, a velvet blazer, a slicked-back ponytail and a pair of nerd glasses. "This is about me stepping up and becoming a bigger, better person and becoming a business," he confided after the presser. "I'm the new President/Creative Director of Priority Records." Does this mean the iconic hip-hop star has turned over a new leaf, so to speak? Well, judge for yourself. When we asked him if marijuana should be legalized, he had this to say: "You know how I stand. I stand very high on that!"

Lambert tells us he's been buried in a studio, working on his new album - which he described as "glam rock packaged in a pop sensibility." He gave a thumbs-up to the gay rights rally that took place in D.C. over the weekend, saying "I think it's great. I think it's a civil rights issue, and I think people deserve to be heard on it. I believe in equal rights for everybody." He said his Rolling Stone cover story was liberating. "To really sit down with a reporter and talk about me from the ground up was really, really great, and I feel like we got a lot of stuff out of the closet - literally cleaned out that closet - so hopefully people can focus on the music." His debut CD hits stores November 24th - two days after he performs on the AMAs.

As for Ms. Paula Abdul... she gave us this Sarah Palin-esque answer when we asked if a show in Vegas was in the cards as part of her post-"Idol" life. "I have many different opportunities in Las Vegas, which I've been offered for years, but the timing is right because I have TV projects that I'm doing - a lot of different things that are very exciting that I get to continue to live my dream now."

However, she was much more succinct when discussing frustration that the "Idol" women have been pitted against each other in the media. "No one ever said anything about the guys, and I know for a fact there was jealousy going around with the guys - bigger dressing rooms, trailers, someone buys a house for X amount of millions, and the other one says, 'Well, I bought the whole land.' And then somebody got J. Lo's interior designer. 'Well, I bought J. Lo!' That's how it would work, you know."