It goes without saying that Ryan Seacrest is one of the hardest working men in Hollywood and has amassed a career that spans radio, television, producing, and along the way has become a household name.
In fact, the Hollywood Reporter has named him the most powerful man in Reality TV today.
But change might be in the air for Seacrest.
Ryan appeared on the NBC “Today” show to chat with Matt Lauer and make a much anticipated, and hyped big announcement.
The big news turned out to be that Seacrest was joining the NBC family and his first project will be participating with the network for coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
But there may be more below the surface that has not been flushed out to the public yet.
Watch Matt and Ryan on the Today Show
E! Entertainment and Ryan have been working together for years and American Idol is on the FOX Network and now Ryan’s working with NBC/Comcast – awkward?
With Seacrest joining the NBC team some have speculated that Seacrest may take over the Today Show from Matt Lauer.
The two even joked about that conversation in the video above but we don’t see it happening anytime soon.
The big news now is what happens with Ryan’s upcoming contract negotiations with the executives at FOX and American Idol for next season. Will he say?
Seacrest says he is unable to comment on his contract with Idol but an announcement will be coming soon.
We suspect he can stay as long as he wants.
And in case you’re not aware, thirty-eight year old Seacrest is also the executive producer of the TV shows “Melissa and Tye”, “Shahs of Sunset”, “Food Revolution”, “Kourtney and Kim Take New York”, “Khloé and Lamar”, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”, “On-Air with Ryan Seacrest”, and just about every red carpet or awards show presented on the E! Network.
But for now we know he is not taking Matt Lauer’s job away and suspect he will remain on American Idol for as long as he wants.
Just twenty four hours into the Mariah Yeater and Justin Bieber baby drama the story is not going away.
Los Angeles police have now said that they are looking into the fact that Bieber’s accuser, now 20-year-old Mariah Yeater, may have engaged in statutory rape with the then 16-year-old singer.
Yeater says she hooked up with JB in a private bathroom last year and had sex at the Staples Center after one of his concerts.
She claims in court documents that Bieber whisked her into a private bathroom and the two engaged in consensual sex that left her pregnant with now three month old Tristyn Anthony Markhouse Yeater.
California says it is a crime for an adult to have sex with anyone under eighteen years old. If the offender is no more than three years older than the victim it would result in a conviction of a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail.
Mariah Yeater
Yeater has filed a paternity suit in California demanding Bieber take a blood and DNA test, and a court date of December 15th has been scheduled to hash out the details of what happens next.
Yeater is suing for $12,000 per month to cover child support for their son. She also told police,
“The intercourse only lasted about 30 seconds and Justin did not want to wear a condom. He apologized for his lack of stamina afterwards and then I was whisked away and I never saw him again. I tried to contact him through normal channels but nobody ever got back to me so I felt I had to go public.”
“These accusations are malicious, defamatory and demonstrably false. We will vigorously pursue all available legal remedies to defend and protect Justin against these allegations.”
But there are some people out there that believe this is all a big hoax, a joke, a ruse, a con job, a Bieber baby scam.
They say the story was devised long ago as a way to keep Bieber’s name in the news during his Christmas album release and help bolster his masculinity in a growing crowd of fans that are starting to believe the whole Selena Gomez girlfriend thing is a big fraud and Bieber is, well… less than manly.
The Bieb’s DID appear on the “Today” show Friday morning to try and crush the rumors by saying,
"I'd just like to say basically that none of those allegations are, like, true. I know that I'm going to be a target, but I'm, like, never going to be a victim. It's, like, crazy, every night after the show I've gone right from the stage right to my car, so it's, like, crazy that some people want to make up such false allegations. To set the record straight, none of it is true."
Bieber told Matt Lauer, “I don’t know that women and I have never met her.”
But that didn’t keep the late night comedy world from taking a stab at the humorous aspect of the story.
In fact, Jimmy Fallon did a parody of the singers hit song “Baby” to explain to his fans what had happened.
We love it when Jimmy does a musical parody and this one will become a classic.
Funny stuff.
We have all seen how Justin and Selena Gomez act around each other – particularly their weekend romp in Hawaii earlier this year where photos emerged of Bieber grabbing Selena’s butt and the two sucking face in every photo.
Anybody who grew up during the 1970’s and 1980’s remembers the original band Journey.
Who can forget "Don't Stop Believin”, “Lights”, “Open Arms”, “Wheel in the Sky”, “Any Way You Want It”, and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin”?
And who could forget the unforgettable voice of Steve Perry?
Journey has been through a lot of transition since their inception when members from the original Santana left to create the new band.
Lead singer Steve Perry was hired in 1977 and became what most of us think about today when we think of the voice of Journey.
But today is a new day and Perry has left the group and been replaced by Pilipino lead singer Arnel Pineda.
Arnel is not the first replacement for Perry – but he is the latest.
We were excited when it was announced they would be performing on NBC’s “Today” Show - and if we close our eyes we can almost hear Perry – and remember the golden early days.
Watch the new “Journey” on the NBC Today Show
Okay, they aren’t bad – but it just doesn’t seem the same as it was in the old days.
But Journey has definitely left their mark on popular culture.
"Don't Stop Believin” was used on “The Sopranos”, and then adapted for the hit television show “Glee” and the “Family Guy”.
Watch Backstage with Journey Video on Today
The band's second album with Arnel Pineda, “Eclipse”, was released in May 2011 and debuted in the top ten on the Billboard 200 chart.
Meredith Vieira announced this morning that she will be leaving the NBC Today Show next month.
Current news correspondent Ann Curry will assume her role as co-anchor along with Matt Lauer.
It had been rumored that Lauer was also leaving but NBC says they have a multi-year contract and he is happy with his role and will be staying put.
NBC News President Steve Capus said,
“Meredith is a remarkable woman and broadcaster who in five short years has left an indelible imprint on morning television. While we will miss waking up with her each morning, we are working together on developing her next chapter at NBC News.”
Meredith, 57, joined Matt Lauer at the anchor desk in 2006 when Katie Couric left to anchor the CBS Evening News.
In what can only be described as major bad news for the NBC network, reports are surfacing that BOTH Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer say they will be leaving the Today show later this year.
Some are wondering if the network can survive yet another high profile departure after the blow from Alec Baldwin yesterday that “30 Rock” is over.
When asked about the speculation, NBC press handlers said,
“There seems to be an awful lot of speculation around news anchors these days, and it’s not our practice to comment on any of it. Matt Lauer has a long term contract with NBC News and ‘Today. ”
True. But both host contracts are due to expire at the end of this year, and “ET” reported that Lauer had been telling everybody he planned to move on once his contract expired in December. And TV Guide was reporting earlier this week about Meredith’s desire to exit the show.
TV Guide says Vieira has been in discussions with NBC executives for several months about extending her contract, but she is said to be exhausted with the demanding early hours and is ready to move on.
Vieira also said that the health of her husband, who has battled multiple sclerosis and cancer, will be a factor in considering her future on the program.
It doesn’t appear that there is any personal friction between the two hosts, in fact they seem like they get along pretty well, even in live embarrassing moments like when Matt Lauer’s divorce turned into laughs on the show.
On critic stated,
“Of course NBC is going to deny it. They just lost ’30 Rock’ and now their morning news lineup is falling apart.”
There has been some speculation that Vieira, Lauer, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are gracefully trying to exit the network before the Comcast NBC Universal deal begins to impact daily operations.
One insider commented,
“Comcast is going to chop up every bit of content they can mine from NBC and either charge for it or try to keep others from embedding it on the internet. The days of being able to freely use NBC content are over.”
THAT seems to make more sense than anything else – the big stars want to get behind NBC before the Comcast takeover is complete because they see what the future will look like and they don’t want any part of it.
But it could also be the oldest ploy in the Hollywood playbook – act like you’re going to leave just before your contract expires so they will offer you more money for the next season.
Somehow, in a sad way, that seems to make the most sense of all.
Charlie Sheen made his first television appearance since all of his recent problems erupted, and it was the most bizarre thing we have ever seen.
Sheen sat down with NBC’s Jeff Rossen on the Today Show and what followed was the most embarrassing thing Sheen has ever done. His handlers should have done whatever they had to do to keep him of the tube – but alas, Charlie will be Charlie.
Sheen talked about his show being cancelled, his drug use, his kids, violence against women, depression, and his war with CBS and the executives he claims are trying to destroy his family. It was an epic fail for Uncle Charley.
First off, Sheen looked like he has been rode hard and put away wet. He rambles on in a manic way that tells us that he is not 100% on his game even though he thinks he is.
The big shockers?
Sheen thinks Chuck Lorre and staff owe him a huge public apology and that they should be licking his feet. He feels he just wants to be this “amazing rock star” that he knows he is, and that people just need to accept his incredible worldly talent and crazy adult lifestyle.
On Alcoholics Anonymous he says it is a silly book written by a broken down fool who plagiarized.
Charlie also says he would only return to “Two and a Half Men” if he got a raise – because he believes he is just that good and thinks he is underpaid. Sheen said he has never been drunk or high on the set but admits that several times he was hung-over.
He admits he’s tired of pretending he is not special, like a bitch’n rock star from Mars, and that people can’t process his greatness with their “normal brains.”
When asked if he was angry about what has happened he told Rossen,
"Well I'm not angry, I'm passionate. It's like everybody thinks I should be begging for my job back and I'm just gonna forewarn them that it's everybody else that's going to be begging me for their job back."
Rossen then asked Charley what he would say to Chuck Lorre if he was watching, and Sheen produced index cards with some very loaded, and strange, questions.
When asked how he will keep from slipping back to drugs and addictions he said,
“I just won’t do it. I will not believe that if I do something then I have to follow it with a certain path because it was written for normal people, people that aren’t special, that don’t have tiger blood and Adonis DNA.”
Wow. Really?
Watch Charlie Sheen Today Show Interview
You can hear is radio outbursts that started all this, and cost him his show last week in our story here.
Meredith Vieira put her foot in her mouth Monday morning on the Today show by asking about Matt Lauer's marriage. It seems Lauer has a hard time staying married, and the subject is supposed to be "off limits" while on air.
Introducing a segment on the "right age to get married," Vieira said, "I got married in my 30s, when did you get married?"
Lauer, who married TV producer Nancy Alspaugh when he was in his early twenties, was divorced seven years later. Lauer stumbled, fumbled for words, and then laughed, as an embarrassed Vieira erupted into laughter and producers made comments from the sidelines.
Lauer's current marriage to Dutch model Annette Roque is also in trouble, and has been the source of tabloid gossip for some time. The couple has been married for 7 years and has three children.
Rogue originally filed for divorce in September 2006, but changed her mind and withdrew the papers a month later. If the two divorce, Matt would be forced to share his estimated $50 million fortune.
