Word: seacrest
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Seacrest, 29, delivers all this with his signature grin--bright, square-jawed, as wide as the grille on a '65 Cadillac--because lightweight and superficial have been very, very good to him. He spent a decade apprenticing, first in local Atlanta radio, then doing gigs on a kids' version of American Gladiators, Talk Soup and Extra. Now he has parlayed his Idol success into a pop-trifle trifecta. While still the host of Fox's smash talent hunt, which returns this week, he has also taken over the radio institution American Top 40 from host Casey Kasem, and last week...
...goes well, On-Air will ensure Seacrest a future in TV long after Idol and the ministrations of his hair stylist (who has been spiking and streaking his fronds since the Extra days) have failed him. At the University of Georgia, Seacrest majored in not just broadcasting but also business. "You can't be successful and have longevity in this business," he says, "if you don't have a business plan." Under Seacrest's thoroughly modern metrosexual exterior beats the heart of a septuagenarian Hollywood dinosaur. Among his idols, he says, are Larry King and Dick Clark, and Seacrest turned...
Like a cub reporter aspiring to be the next David Brinkley, Seacrest is, in a way, applying for a job that no longer exists. Young listeners have many more influences than they did in the hitmaking days of American Bandstand, and music itself has less of a monopoly on youth culture. Now it is part of an amorphous entertainment blob in which the boundaries between TV, movie and music stardom are fuzzier than ever--a fact best exemplified by reality-TV shows such as Idol and the crossover celebrities they create...
...personality interviews (Donald Trump, Reba McEntire), in-studio performances (Missy Elliott, Enrique Iglesias) and celeb gossip. It's like Total Request Live but older, or Entertainment Tonight but with more screaming fans. Granted, nobody asked for either one, and On-Air was shaky in its first week. Seacrest may be better suited to the more controlled Idol than to unpredictable live variety. When Richie brought a pair of goats with her to plug her rural reality show, one of the beasts did what well-fed goats do, all over the stage. Another talk host might have improvised a zinger...
...what remains likable about Seacrest is that he knows, in an era of diminished icons, that the self-deprecator is king. "I'm just a little man," he said, introducing the first day of On-Air. He continually mocks his fussiness over his clothes and hair. (As for the ensuing rumors about his sexuality, however, Seacrest has taken pains to mention his girlfriend on air.) His limitations are his talent. Unlike Carson Daly, his closest analog in the next--Dick Clark sweepstakes, he has no Lothario smolder about him, no sense that he's as much of a player...