Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cable’s E! rolls out the red carpet for Ryan Seacrest


Ryan Seacrest
 (The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokesman-Review

“AMERICAN IDOL” host Ryan Seacrest signed a deal with E! Entertainment Television on Tuesday that includes producing and hosting the channel’s red-carpet awards coverage. Seacrest, 31, will be executive producer and co-host of E!’s “Live From the Red Carpet,” starting with the Golden Globes on Jan. 16.

Star Jones, who handled red-carpet shows for E! after Joan Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, skipped to the TV Guide Channel and won’t be part of the team.

Seacrest also will become managing editor and lead anchor of “E! News” and will produce and host celebrity interview specials.

He’s remaining with “Idol,” which returns for its fifth season Jan. 17 and continues to host the weekly “American Top 40” radio shows as well as his morning radio show in Los Angeles.

Seacrest also is a fill-in host for CNN’s “Larry King Live” and has signed to take over “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” when Dick Clark no longer does the show. He co-hosted with Clark on Saturday.

Back in the rockin’ chair

Dick Clark made his first television appearance since a stroke in late 2004 on Saturday’s 34th annual “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

A seated Clark, 76, sounded hoarse and occasionally was hard to understand, but said: “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

When it was over, he added: “I’ve had a wonderful time tonight. There’s nothing like being in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and believe me, this is one night I will never, ever forget.”

Look, an American infidel

How does an 18-year-old “American Idol” star stay fresh while traveling to seven countries in seven days to entertain the troops?

Diana DeGarmo says you sleep and eat on schedule – and it helps to bring along your mom.

DeGarmo, last season’s runner-up to Fantasia Barrino on the Fox reality show, visited several U.S. bases in the Middle East and eastern Africa as part of a USO tour, with mother/manager Brenda DeGarmo in tow.

After performing at Camp Victory in Baghdad, she even got to spend the night in one of Saddam Hussein‘s former palaces.

He just doesn’t have the fire

The Donald does not want to be the governor.

Donald Trump, mega-developer and star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” said he has no interest in running for governor of New York this year “because I’m having too much fun doing what I’m doing now.”

Trump had been suggested as a possible Republican candidate for governor by state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, which he called “a great honor.”

What’s new, Sir Pussycat?

It’s Sir Tom Jones now.

The big-voiced singer from Wales, whose hits include “It’s Not Unusual,” “What’s New Pussycat” and “She’s a Lady,” was among the new members of the Order of the British Empire announced over the weekend.

Jones, 65, joins a group of previous pop-rock knights including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Elton John.

The birthday bunch

Actress Jane Wyman is 92. Actress Barbara Rush is 79. Actress Dyan Cannon is 69. Actress Ann Magnuson (“Anything but Love”) is 50. Country singer Patty Loveless is 49. Singer Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) is 46. Actor Dave Foley is 43. Actress Julia Ormond is 41. Country singer Deana Carter is 40. Actor Jeremy Licht (“Valerie”) is 35. Actress Jill Jones (“Girlfriends”) is 31.