On Thursday the Trentonian newspaper reported about a New Jersey radio DJ who had a heated exchange with Ryan Seacrest about whether or not he was gay. From the story:
"Ryan," Carton said, "Are you gay?"
Silence.
"Ryan, are you a homosexual?"
With that, Seacrest was headed for the door.
"I can’t stay here, man," Seacrest said. "I gotta jet."
The "American Idol" star stormed out of the studio and into the NJ-101.5 offices, but he was coaxed back into the studio with the understanding that the rest of the interview would center on the television show and not on his personal life.
"This was supposed to be about the show, about ‘American Idol,’" Seacrest said when he returned to the air.
Co-host Ray Rossi, an admitted "Idol" fan, was ready to move on, but Carton wouldn’t let up.
"Are you gonna walk out again if I ask you about it?" Carton asked Seacrest.
"Absolutely. I’m outta here," said Seacrest.
Immediately, Carton asked "Are you gay?" "You know," Seacrest said, "I don’t know why I trusted you."
And, again, Seacrest was out the door, this time for good.
Pretty shocking, huh? Well, it was a prank. That wasn't Seacrest on the air; it was an impersonator. As a story in Newsday noted, this isn't the first time this radio show has pulled a prank. "During yesterday's show, Carton recalled the duo's interview
three years ago with singer Bobby Darin, who had died 30 years earlier," it noted.
"Carton also promised that listeners can expect another scam three years
from now."
As is frequently the case, the story spread from the Trentonian to other papers such as the Philly Daily News and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gawker also noted the item. The DJ later revealed the interview was a fake, causing several outlets to run corrections. We've noted some below. One problem, however, is that the Trentonian's original, incorrect story is still on their site without any correction appended. (The paper did run a corrective article, which is excerpted below.)
Dan Gross would like to apologize to Ryan Seacrest and to Daily News
readers for an incorrect report in his Thursday column. It was not
Seacrest, the host of Fox’s “American Idol,” who stormed out of an
interview with New Jersey 101.5 Wednesday afternoon. It was an
imposter. “Jersey Guys” hosts Craig Carton and Ray Rossi were
interviewing a Seacrest impersonator when they repeatedly asked whether
the TV star were gay.
The radio hosts yesterday acknowledged the prank, which was covered on the front page of the Trentonian, and also led to a flood of media calls to New Jersey 101.5 yesterday.
“It’s nice to know a radio station can still pull off a stunt like this…We can take anyone down…it’s within our power. The Washington Post wanted to do a front-page story for tomorrow. That’s the power the Jersey Guys have,” the megalomaniacal Carton said.
Carton also poked fun at Gross for the erroneous report and said “I wouldn’t want to be that guy today.” Neither would we.
Seacrest’s publicist Meredith O’Sullivan told Gross yesterday her
client has never done an interview with New Jersey 101.5, but had
nothing else to say about the radio prank. Link
An
item in Friday's Peach Buzz about American Idol host Ryan Seacrest
storming out of a radio interview was incorrect. New Jersey 101.5 did
an interview with a man pretending to be Seacrest as a hoax, according
to the Philadelphia Daily News, the original source of the information. Link
You know how it didn’t really make sense that Ryan Seacrest would be
doing a live, in-studio radio interview in New Jersey? And how it
didn’t really make sense why, after the first time he walked out of the
studio because the DJ asked about his sexuality, he would have agreed
to continue the interview? Yeah, well, it now makes sense that it
didn’t make sense. Because it turns out it didn’t actually happen... Link
We were scammed.
Local radio station New Jersey-101.5 pulled an on-air prank Wednesday afternoon and we fell for it.
So did other media outlets from New York to Philadelphia and beyond -- including The Trentonian.
During
Wednesday’s "Jersey Guys" broadcast, host Craig Carton told listeners
that television’s "American Idol" host, Ryan Seacrest, was there inside
the Ewing studio as part of a publicity tour for the show.
Yesterday,
however, Carton revealed that the whole thing had been a hoax and that
he’d enlisted someone with a similar-sounding voice to act the part of
Seacrest.
Listeners - and media outlets - were fooled by Wednesday’s fake interview... Link
