Clay Aiken gave an on-line interview to Ramin Setoodeh from Newsweek on Friday, January 11th. Here was an opportunity for a respected news magazine to do a good interview with one of the most fascinating and controversial celebrities around. Why fascinating? Because he's not a one dimensional, a one-size-fits-all, so to speak, celebrity. Why controversial? Because everything he does gets noticed and commented on. Fall asleep on a plane and get in a bro-ha-ha with an attacking passenger? Covered in over 500 newspapers, news sites, tabloid rags, and TV shows, including CNN Headline News.
So anyway, this Newsweek reporter had a chance to interview Clay and the beginning of the interview was pretty informative. We learned that Clay is very sore from his Spamalot rehearsals and why Clay decided on Broadway and Monty Python. From there, it went downhill, well, not Clay, but the questions this Newsweek 'reporter' asked.I don't know if the 'reporter' was trying to be funny or maybe trying to get a scoop or what but Lord help me, if this is the kind of interview a Newsweek 'reporter' asks, Newsweek, I'm available for a freaking job because even a neophyte could have done better than this bozo. I'm surprised Setoodeh didn't ask Aiken if he saw the card!
The first inkling I had of a fluff interview was the question, 'Did you know your socks don't match?' O-kay, Mr. Reporter. Maybe your questions will get better, at least, more intelligent. Then he asked Aiken about why he decided to do Broadway and some Spamalot-related questions. Good job, so far, only one little fart.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so optimistic because Setoodeh then asked about the 'Claymates' *yawn* and if women throw their panties on the stage when Aiken sings *BIG yawn* Really Mr. so-called Reporter, look at some interviews from the past five years to get your answers about these tired, old questions. In fact, why don't you use your Stanford and Oxford educated brain to try to think of something, oh, I don't know, maybe original? There's an idea! Try to ask original questions or at least, questions that haven't been asked multiple times.
Wait, it gets worse.
The reporter then asked about the airplane incident, yes, that same incident that got over 500 mentions in the media. Then he asked about the Kelly Ripa 'thing, if Aiken thought it was a homophobic remark. Each time, Aiken's answer was "I'm not going to discuss it" yet the reporter went on and on. What part of 'I'm not going to discuss it' don't you understand, Mr. Reporter? What part of 'intelligent interview' don't you understand? I'll quote a bit of the article here:
How did you get into a fight with that lady on a plane?
I'm not going to talk about it.
I was just curious because you've never talked about it.
I did talk about it.
What about the Kelly Ripa thing?
I'm not going to discuss it.
Did you think it was homophobic?
I'm not going to discuss it.
What do you want to talk about?
I think we're done.
Can we talk about something fun?
No, we're done. I thought NEWSWEEK would be more reputable. I'm surprised
But I think people are curious about it.
It was a year ago. This is NEWSWEEK. It's not the National Enquirer. I'd hate to have a job where I had to be rude to people.
We're just having a conversation.
Change the subject! I'd never take a job where I had to do something that I didn't want to do.
I'll change the subject. What do you do for fun?
I watch the news. I read news magazines, but I'm reconsidering that now.
Perhaps I should cut this reporter a bit of slack, after all, he's only 25, he's a baby and he's probably spent the past 10 years or so reading newspapers and magazines and looking at TV news broadcasts' that use gossip sites as 'sources'. Yes, even Newsweek used Gawker.com and referenced Perez Hilton as a 'source' for articles a time or two. This subject was written about at The ConCLAYve a few months ago. Check it out.
I'll shut up now. I just wish that respected news magazines would write with a little more respect for their readers. We're not stupid and we'd like the style and method of writing to reflect the intelligence of the readers. I just wish that reporters would do their job with integrity and to the best of their ability instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Clay Aiken
Newsweek
Spamalot
Broadway
Monty Python
The ConCLAYve
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