A look back: October 2009
Two stories that got Ryan a lot of news headlines in October 2009 were his visit to London for Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday party and the arrest of his alleged stalker. Videos of Ryan’s New Moon readings were hugely popular across blogs and fandom, and Ryan’s visit to the Ronald McDonald House and gala resulted in interviews from Atlanta media organisations.
Simon Cowell’s 50th Birthday
Simon’s 50th birthday celebration was one of the biggest and most extravagently narcisistic events of the year. Ryan’s twitpic of the Simon soup appeared everywhere, along with his comments about the waiters wearing Simon masks and the video messages in the bathroom. Ryan was papped at LAX, outside his hotel in London, at Bungalow 8 and arriving for the party. Randy Jackson flew in for the party too but Paula Abdul had flu and was unable to travel. Few photos from the event have surfaced online, but Piers Morgan told stories of Ryan being dragged on stage and whipped by a dominatrix (!) and several people said Ryan was hugging it out with Simon to the sound of New York, New York.
Ryan’s alleged stalker
Every news and blog was reporting on Ryan’s alleged stalker, Chidi Uzomah, at the end of October. We first heard about Uzomah last month when he assaulted a bodyguard who stopped him approaching Ryan’s car after getting an autograph outside CHOC. During October, Uzomah went to the KIIS FM studios in Burbank, not realising that Ryan doesn’t do his show from there, despite being told to stay away from Ryan as a condition of his probation. Last Friday he turned up at E! building where he was detained, arrested and later charged with felony stalking. Ryan’s lawyers were granted a temporary restraining order. This is a disturbing ongoing story that has everyone talking and a lot of people concerned about Ryan’s safety.
New Moon
In the run up to the release of New Moon the movie, Ryan has been reading passages from the book, as he did last year with Twilight. Fortunatley for Twihards and Ryan fans alike, most of the readings have been on video — ensuring that they were posted and discussed on blogs everywhere.
Cut the gay jokes
Mid-month many sites were reporting that Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest had been told to cut the gay jokes on the next season of Idol with the arrival of [Ryan’s good friend] Ellen DeGeneres — Gossip Cop judged the story fiction, quoting a well-placed individual saying “it’s total crap”.
Ryan Seacrest Productions
The Kardashians were in the news following the wedding of Khloé and Lamar and the Keeping Up With The Kardashians Wedding Special airs next month. Towards the end of the month, a new show called Bank of Hollywood was starting to generate interest on twitter and forums. There’s not much known about it yet, but the news item we posted on this site is geting more traffic than stories about RSP shows generally do.
New Music
Ryan premiered several new music tracks on his radio show, and these generated a lot of buzz. Debuts included tracks from Adam Lambert, Rihanna, Timbaland and Leighton Meester.
Ronald McDonald house gala
Ryan visited the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House and hosted a gala fundraiser. There was a TV interview on Good Day Atlanta and a ten-minute YouTube interview with Rodney Ho, who also wrote up the visit on his Idol blog.
You can find out what we wrote about the news stories mentioned here in our October 2009 blog archive and see what other sites had to say via the October 2009 headlines
