#24: Somewhere out there Clay is looking cute and talking with an accent and practicing a dance.

[Ansamcw]

WOW ...this morning the boards were all quiet and I told ldyJ...all it would take is one article interview or blog to get the baords humming....and I was right!!!

What an interview....I LOVE IT!!!!

and you know what....I think that interviewer came away respecting Clay....he could've written a hatchet job but instead he wrote down the interview showing Clay;s quick wit and how strong he was...and how rude the interviewer was...

EEEEEEEEEE!!!! new singing parts for Clay...I thought that would happen

Love his response about Idol...

negative response...just part of the fandoms regular response....I bet its pretty easy to predict who didn't like the interview or who was worried about it. I don't pay attention to the negative anymore unless it really seem to be overwhelming like the response to the skating show.

I think a lot of the bitching and beating up of old horses happens when people need to post and nothing to post about. I think I rather have the board quiet down or talk about OT things than keep rehashing old issues.

Fake Hannah...I totally understand their explanation. Hannah is just a character she plays anyway and it is understandable to have a double play her for a minute as she transform to Miley since that is the premise of her TV show anyway...someone living a double life, its not like the double did a whole song or something.

hee 00lsee

[RIFAN]

I actually felt sick to my stomach after reading that interview. Not because of anything Clay said--I loved how he stood up to that rude idiot. TITANIUM!! What makes me sick is that he has to put up with such CRAP!! I mean the man just got back from a UNICEF to Mexico--spent Christmas Day there--no less-motivated people to donate over $100,000 in about a week. Then he has this amazing Golfing for Inclusion event.

The idiot that interviewed him obviously did no research, knows nothing about Clay--talk about sloppy "journalism." I subscribe to Newsweek (don't ask me why). On two occasions I threw it in the trash after reading the little blurbs on the last page about Clay. One was about the airplane incident and was inaccurate and the other made fun of how he had been appointed to be on the People With Intellectual Disabilites Committe--both were totally off the mark and not what I expect to read in Newsweek.

I can somehow just imagine now that excepts of this could be published in the printed version and make it look like Clay was rude (HE DEFINITELY WAS NOT!) I will be pissed if any part of this rude interview finds its way into the hard copy of Newsweek and I will cancel my subscription. I may just cancel it anyway.

Glad this board is here--sometimes a girl's just gotta' vent. Thanks for listening.

[underthespell]

ETA this Newsweek interview:

Achin’ Aiken

Clay Aiken is sore from rehearsing for 'Spamalot,' and now he's sore at us.

By Ramin Setoodeh | Newsweek Online Exclusive

LOVED this! Thanks for bringing it over, Jenna! Rock ON, Mr. A!!

I loved this interview. Clay in charge. Clay not taking any shit. Clay chatty and witty until the interviewer crossed the line. Clay not worried about what PEOPLE will say. I love this guy. He stands by his principles. His strength and character just amaze me.

[cindilu2]

Heheh, well RIFAN, the witty and chatty part will be okay.

And the socks.

And the sore legs.

Really, I am kind of amazed they left all his answers there. The guy tried, Clay shut him down. And the good parts stayed in. - I just don't see the bad side of this one. (I'm sure I need re-educating).

[Ansamcw]

yeah the interviewer was rude and its sad but I do believe the guy really feels like its part of his job...I think this is how low the media has gone...

I actually do hope that its part of their hard copy because I love how he answered and I bet that majority of the readers of newsweek are sick of the way the news magazine has turned tabloid. I bet he will gain a lot of respect from a lot of people.

[skybar22]

RIFAN wrote:

I actually felt sick to my stomach after reading that interview. Not because of anything Clay said--I loved how he stood up to that rude idiot. TITANIUM!! What makes me sick is that he has to put up with such CRAP!! I mean the man just got back from a UNICEF to Mexico--spent Christmas Day there--no less-motivated people to donate over $100,000 in about a week. Then he has this amazing Golfing for Inclusion event.

I had a similar reaction at first. Most of what I'm reading elsewhere is in support of Clay. Just a few of the usual suspects bitching that they know better and he should of, could of done this or that. I adore him and he has paid his dues so he can stand up to the idiots who want to discuss trash any he wants to, IMO. When Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt or George Clooney stand up for themselves I applaud them too! There are some real folks out there in the world of entertainment and I'm glad Clay is one of them. We picked us a live wire and a winner.

[muskifest]

BW, to me Clay was having fun until the questions started about the "Trashy" stuff. Clay may have thought..oh cool, Newsweek, I'll do that one and yet he's stuck answering questions that Star and Equirer would ask. It also makes me wonder how much press does Clay turn down, if any, since he seems really sick of talking about certain things. There's a whole level of media that deals with nothing but that sorta thing.

I was thinking that, too, Couchie. His schedule is probably killing him--physically, yeah, he said that. But mentally,emotionally---he's on his own in NYC...working his cute tush off and he says yes to "Newsweek" and gets this garbage. Who IS this 'reporter'? To whom did Newsweek give this assignment? Holy shit.

I wish I had video clack of this...I bet it would be all kinds of hot.

I'm not planning to go to other message boards but I can imagine to the various commentary on this particular window into Mr. Aiken.

whatever.

He's a man. A grown up. He's busy. And smart as hell. And this so-called interviewer was rude and insulting and patronizing and totally out of line. And Clay didn't pretend that he was anything else. Hey...if he can tell Diane Sawyer on national television that questions about his sexuality become rude and that he doesn't understand why she wants to know, he can certainly tell this no-name, no-nuts nobody what he can do with his stupid questions, know what I'm sayin?

Did I already tell you how hawt a video clip of that would be?

[bottlecap]

I looked up some of the past celebrity Q&A's the writer had done on the Newsweek website, and Clay's interview seemed to be very much in the same vein. It's just irreverent, pop culture fluff. If the Spamalot publicists and marketing people think Clay needs to reign it in in anyway, I think they'd let him know. Not that I'm a marketing guru, nor do a play one on TV...

[FromClaygary]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh!!!!

I just bought our first set of tickets to Spamalot! Really wanted to wait until next week, but these good ones for Sunday night came up, and well....y'know. :00000442:

I'm so excited about this trip!

Do we have a buy/sell thread here for Spamalot?

[Ansamcw]

I looked up some of the past celebrity Q&A's the writer had done on the Newsweek website, and Clay's interview seemed to be very much in the same vein. It's just irreverent, pop culture fluff. If the Spamalot publicists and marketing people think Clay needs to reign it in in anyway, I think they'd let him know. Not that I'm a marketing guru, nor do a play one on TV...

ahhh so this is the guys schtick....oh well...Clay handled him very well...

I doubt this interview will come as a surprise to anyone that knows Clay...this does not surprise me at all...just disappointed that this interviewer had to go there...

[RIFAN]

OKAY--FEELIN' BETTER. Don't need to breathe into a bag or anything. Think I've just led a very sheltered life and I worry too much about every little thing when it comes to Clay. You're all right, of course. He's a very intelligent man and definitely knows how to handle himself.

I still remember early on when PETA had that horrible neutering ad--knew very little about Clay at that point (just that I LOVED him and his beautiful voice). When I heard about the ad and how they (PETA) threatened to run it unless ........(don't remember what they were demanding). Anyway, he stood up to them and they ran the GD ad and he's still here--that was when he first showed what he was made of and he's been doing it ever since.

I hope someday Clay gets to have his talk show. He would put all of these idiot interviewers to shame.

[Couch Tomato]

Did PETA run the ad? I don't think they did.

I used to worry about Clay too ..made myself sick with worry over stuff. Remember when the teacher of the year said he starved the kids and then didn't pay them? Innocent times now but I was sooo worried. OMG, they're saying CLay was mean to the children...UNICEF will fire him. So yeah I understand that mindset. But there just came a time when I had to put things into perspective. And everybody's perspective is different. For me, my sanity? I had to learn to sympathize but I couldn't feel every arrow. And I also learned to trust Clay. He has good and experienced peopel around him to help him legally and close friends and supportive family to help him emotionally. And he's got Jerome to keep the nutbars away. And Clay's a pretty strong dude with his head on straight.

[laljeterfan]

How apropos that this Newsweek article comes right on the heels of the conversations on this board earlier today about the sorry state of the media :F_05BL17blowkiss: to Clay for calling them on their crap and telling it like it is!! I was always kind of turned on by what some like to call "pissy Clay"- the banging on the coke machine, the Jaded Journalist interviews from AI (ESPECIALLY the "buddy" one- probably why I have never liked Leno when Clay has been on his show, cuz he always called him "buddy" in that condescending manner, which just kinda pissed me off.....)

Whew, kinda got sidetracked there!!!

Love the interview- love the snark, love the TITANIUM, love him! (Life is good when you're as easy as I am!)

[justclay12]

still trying to catch up because i have lots of reading for school and it just started yesterday but i justed wanted to add how great i thought clay did during the interview. i love a man who stands up for himself without beating someone over the head, although he has beat up a coke machine or 2 in his time. i just love him and i am getting so excited about next week, especially after hearing they wrote some songs for him. i so wish i lived in nyc right now because i'd probably go to see him every night and i'd wind up losing weight because who can afford to eat and go to the theatre in nyc.

[Claygasm]

this cracked me up too

Do you think the Claymates will come see you?

They'll be there in full force. I hope they behave.

Are they rowdy?

Sometimes. They scare me every once in a while.

LOVE the interview! You go Clay!! That was just HOT!!

The quotes couchie brought over made me laugh out loud! And I LOVED that they wrote new songs for him! How cool is that! I sooooooooooo cannot wait for Friday!!

[Gibby]

Just jumping in here before I leave work to thank everyone for the hugs and support. My father is still hanging in there. No one really knows what will happen next or how long he has or what the next step is - although when and if he can leave the hospital they are leaning toward hospice. The night before last was terrible, but things are a bit better now.

And life goes on. I am still planning on seeing "Spamalot" Friday - and my father better not mess that up! (I know that sounds insensitive, but trust me when I tell you my father would appreciate that sense of humor!) Cannot wait to see our boyfriend's Broadway stage debut!

{{{{{{{{{CG}}}}}}}}}}}}} I'm glad that things are better for the time being. And I'm sooo glad you're going to Spamalot! Have a fantastic time!

Now at least I understand what Bill Keveney at USA TODAY meant by 'quirky.' It must be a code word for someone with a massive brain and balls to match.

Heeeee - I love it! A massive brain and big balls.

Clay's reponses were wonderful. Snarky, quick, funny, and intelligent. And Clay said that the interview was over, but was nice enough to keep talking to the guy after he stopped asking the tabloidy questions. So it's not like he hung up on the guy. All in all, an excellently handled interview!

[RIFAN]

Couch Tomato,

I thought they ran the ad (seem to remember seeing it in a magazine at my daughter's house and being worried sick that someone would comment on it), but I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time). Funny--the whole thing is just so insignifcant now and it seemed like such a big deal at the time.

I'm afraid I still feel the arrows, but coming to this board definitely helps. You all really are the voice of reason.

It's just that when I feel this strongly about someone, it's hard for me to know that not everyone in the universe thinks he is as wonderful as I do.

Never knew that the Sewell teacher of the year thingy made it to Newsweek (was not a subscriber then). God, that would have just killed me at the time!! I was sick enough just reading about it on the internet--knowing, of course, that it was not true.

Sometimes I think I should just not read anything at all and just enjoy the music, but I am way too obsessed at this point. I have to know it all--the good, the bad and the ugly. And I have to say--for the last two weeks the good has definitely outweighed the bad and the ugly. It's been a great two weeks with Mexico and GFI--a wonderful start to 2008!!

[rohdy]

What will people think?!

"People"? I ain't "people." (tm Lina Lamont)

Yeah, okay, but it's one of my favorite lines...any excuse to use it. heh

Hee-hee....best movie musical...evah!!!

[KAndre]

"And I am telling you...I'm not fighting

I'm the best knight you'll ever know.

But there's no way I will ever go,

No, no, no, no way,

No, no, no, no way I'm gonna be fighting.

I'll just be running away, now.

Maybe I'll be brave in Act Three.

I'm Robin,

Sir Robin,

And you, and you, you're gonna love me.

Ooh, you're gonna love me."

Dear Lord, woman! Send that to Nichols and Idle right now!

It would be perfection!

Of course, it's now stuck in my head...

[playbiller]

Interesting, CG, I got a feeling it was a phone interview as well. Don't forget to take care of yourself with all the stress of your Father's illness. Two sick people doesn't help.

I believe that there were some test releases of the ad by Peta, but not the billboards they initially intended to do - ya see, some of their big supporters were Clay fans. not Triumph the dog fans andwhen the companies supporting PETA were targeted, they pulled out their support, one, Good Bakers, now supports the BAF instead. The decided not to run it in a big way, but Triumph was the head writer for Conan and decided to fget even on his own. Personally, I admit to writing to various companies that supported PETA, but I didn't write so much about Clay as send them copies of newspaper stories about how PETA killed animals they took from a shelter and set them up to die by putting them in a black van in the sun in the south in the summer is so much better than having them be pets. Pet = Slavery to the head honchos there. Then there was the time they thought it would be a good idea to liberate all the farm raised turkeys, who then starved since they didn't know how to find food. there was something about freeing animals from some petting zoo and tghe animals were run over by traffic. Yes, death, even painful slow death, is prefereable to PETA instead of being a pet. I still occaisionally send those stories to companies supporting them when I see them in the news. I think I should target some Hollywood types, but they would not read it anyway. I hatessess PETA and did since before Clay - talk about deluded insane people. Instead of creating havoc, they could put up refuges, but NOOOO-ooo-OOOO.

[justclay12]

before i head to bed, had to respond to playbiller's post. i've hated peta for a long time too, anyone who is that radical about anything needs some serious help, in my opinion. but i'd never read about some of those things that were done. that's just horrible. i did read an article recently where they wanted to let a chimp or something die when its mother wouldn't take care of it and thought that was wacko, but those things you posted were just terrible. i don't understand how anyone can go to those extremes.

i also wanted to respond about some of the political stuff because i'm really interested in that, especially this year, because i think it is a very important election. claygasm, i'm with you on that one. but even though that is my pick, i still hate when bad info is put out there. a friend of mine recently sent me an email about obama that she had gotten from her mil which seemed too weird, and even though he's not my top pick, i still had to find out the facts, so when i started looking around, i found that the email only contained part of the info from the site. that site that the mil had supposedly gotten the article from was actually using this particular email to say that it was all false accusations and then went on to tell the actual facts. this is why i don't believe anything anymore without doing my own research, unless its something that is relatively unimportant to me. for example, while i am completely fascinated with thinking about clay's personal life, if someone says they see him out somewhere, i'm not going to stress if its true or not. it's interesting but as long as it's not a diss or someone being delusional and claiming to be girlfriends or something, to me it's just something to amuse myself.

now i have to get to bed so i can do more studying tomorrow. night all.

[Thankful4Clay]

The interviewer could see his mismatched socks, so I'm guessing they were in the same room.

[muskifest]

That's my girl, Gibby!

Heeeee - I love it! A massive brain and big balls.

Ooooh.....thread title?!?!!?

I love a man who knows when to sling his big balls around, you know? Like....he doesn't need to act like a dick in order to prove that he has one. But he is smart enough to know when a flash of titanium from time to time can be....

impressive

gulp. Whatamanwhatamanwhataveryfineman.

[JennaZ]

The interviewer could see his mismatched socks, so I'm guessing they were in the same room.

Good point. Personally, my take is that everything Clay said was with a self-deprecating smile--until the interviewer started asking about Ripa and the airline incident.

If anything, I would guess that Clay might be a little disappointed to discover that a news magazine would ask tabloid questions. It's a shame, in a way, because if they had asked serious questions about things like, say, Afghanistan, he could have had some really interesting and insightful things to say. However, it seems as though this particular reporter's research only went as far as TMZ.

A part of me wishes he had deflected the questions with more humor, but I can understand his irritation. And ultimately, I don't think his responses really hurt him.

[playbiller]

Good point, Thankful

Oooh the haters are out there blogging their teeny tiny little hearts out already!

Just a peaceful plea, many of us are multiboardal and I do wander off and read boards I am not a member of to see what is happening, somedays I randomly pick a board from the front of this board and go see what it is like. So, of you want to disagree, I would rather you disagreed here where we can have a dialog. I have been known to change the wording in my posts to be less offensive and do respind to PMs (when my mailbox is not full, heh).